Our attention is drawn to widely publicised media reports of meetings held in Kaduna and Abuja by a certain section of the Northern political elite. The meetings, according to the report, were a ‘kind of northern’ opposition against the possible candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 general elections.
The communique of the Abuja meeting indicated the decision of the conveners of the meeting to invite Gen. Muhammadu Buhari among others in their next meetings.
We wish to use this medium and make it very clear that Gen. Buhari and his party, the Congress for Progressive Change, would have nothing to do with the meeting, as it is diversionary; and whose principles are inconsistent with the tenets of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The meetings were largely a PDP affair and Gen. Buhari cannot be a party to them.
We, however, concede to the right of those northerners who are members of the PDP to continue to advocate zoning or anything they like. That is the business of the PDP, which is quite different from (that of) the North.
It is rather unfortunate that 50 years after independence, the presidency of the country is still being trivialised along sectional divides. We wish to make it clear that the presidency of Nigeria is not about North versus South or Muslims versus Christians.
It is about a programme for development; it is about performance or non-performance; it is about integrity and accountability. It is about the fight against corruption and mismanagement of public funds. And Nigerians under a free and fair election should be allowed to make their choice.