Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has tongue-lashed the Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have accepted that General Muhammadu Buhari will win the 2015 presidential election. This was his reaction to the claim by Governor Aliyu Babangida of Niger State during the PDP Governors’ Forum interaction with media and civil society that the North would not vote for Buhari because his victory would distort the rotation agreement for the presidency as, according to him, Buhari had pledged to do only one term if he wins.
According to the Oshiomhole, if the worry of the PDP Governors is simply that General Buhari will do only one term as President, it means they have already conceded victory to the APC and have agreed that the 2015 election is already won by the APC.
He said: “when you are playing a match and it is clear that you are winning and your opponent is going for your legs instead of the ball, while you hope and trust that the referee will enforce the rule, you must remain focused on the ball.
“The PDP Governors said many other things that do not make sense. I read one of their statements that General Buhari has signed an agreement that he is going to do only one term, and that the North would be short-changed, that is what they claim. That is fine. That means they accept that Buhari will win the election, but they are only worried about how long he will be there for and if that should be the burden of the PDP, it tells you that they have exhausted everything.
“For me, they have accepted defeat by just saying that it is now their burden whether somebody rules for one term or not but remember that there are many great men, assuming without conceding that that is an issue.
“Mandela is celebrated round the world, American Presidents, European leaders, they all competed for space to attend his funeral. He was in office for only five years. So statesmen are not judged by how many years they occupy an office for but the impact they make in the life of a nation.
“I don’t want to join those who want to move away from the issues focusing on personality and irrelevant issues. I think that the issue for me is about policy choices, it is about leadership, it is about security and wellbeing. I would have thought PDP who have addressed how they can justify a regime in which in the name of privatization, they allowed private individuals to collect money, what they call fixed charges when there is no power supply.
“Those are the issues I expect PDP Governors to address. I expect the PDP Governors to address why they inherited a currency that was exchanging at N75 to a dollar in 1999 when PDP took over Governance and that as they were in Lagos talking about Buhari’s security of tenure, that naira is now N230 to one US dollar and everything is going up.
“IMF is already saying that even this number is not sustainable that you will have to suffer more devaluation. Those are the issues we ordinary Nigerians want the ruling party to address and if indeed they have no answers to these questions, they should not worry about how long Buhari will govern, what matters is how well he will govern.”
