• You’ve only one vote, APC tells SDP national chairman
National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Nigeria (SDP), Olu Falae, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.
False also slammed the Buhari administration for failing Nigeria in the areas of security and the economy.
The former secretary to the Government of the Federation, who bemoaned the continuous and wanton spate of killings around the country, said he had expected Buhari to critically appraised the current situation in the country and declared he would not seek re-election in 2019.
He said though the president is a good friend of his, he is duty-bound to point out any government that fails to protect the lives of its citizens, and that based on that, Buhari should be voted out of office.
False urged Nigerians to come together and do everything possible to ease out the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration for the president’s sake and that of Nigeria.
The SDP chieftain made the remarks in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, where he fielded questions from newsmen, shortly after he emerged from a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Falae, who disclosed he was in Abeokuta to see Obasanjo about the country’s state of affairs, said Nigerians must unite in effecting the real change.
“I am here to visit Papa Obasanjo, former head of military government and former president of Nigeria, and who was my boss when I was the permanent secretary at the presidency.
“The affairs of Nigeria are greater than the political ambition of anybody. So, I am here to exchange views with Baba Obasanjo on the affairs of Nigeria. Once upon a time, between 1977 and 1979, I worked with him, he was the military head of state and I was a permanent secretary working with him. And we did many things in those days to advance the course of Nigeria. I thought I should come back to see him, to exchange views with him on how we can contribute towards the elimination of the threat we are now facing.
“You know, and I know that the current administration has not done well. The primary responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. This administration is not doing so. People continued to be killed and slaughtered every night.
“Any government that cannot stop that has failed. President Buhari is my friend. Once upon a time, you will recall that I raised his hand at the Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan asking people to vote for him, because he said he would restructure Nigeria.
“So, it is not a personal matter. The truth of the matter is that he has not done well, and I was hoping that he woud look at the situation as a very honest and right-thinking person and do himself and Nigerians a favour, by saying, in the light of what has happened, and giving the state of affairs, he is not going to contest. That’s what I thought he should have done, but he didn’t do so.”
On a possible collaboration between Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigerian Movement (CNM) and SDP, Falae said: “I am sure most, if not all, right-thinking Nigerians would see the need for all of us to work together to ensure there is a good, beneficial, peaceful and progressive change in Nigeria.
In a swift reaction, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said: “Elder Falae is entitled to his opinion as a Nigerian and a senior citizen, but, at the end of the day, it is only one PVC that he has to vote with.”