Obasanjo’s support’ll give us more votes –Buhari.

The Presidential candidate of the
All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has
welcomed the endorsement of
former Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo, saying it will
convince more Nigerians to vote for
him and his party.
Buhari said this on Wednesday
night during an interview with
CNN’s Chief International
Correspondent, Christine
Amanpour.
Obasanjo had on Tuesday in
Nairobi, Kenya during an interview
with the Financial Times of London
at the launch of his controversial
autobiography entitled, ‘My Watch,’
expressed support for Buhari.
When asked by Amanpour what he
thought of Obasano’s
endorsement, Buhari said, “It
would certainly bring more
supporters to us and more
confidence again to us for those
who are sitting on the fence.”
This, he said, was “because General
Obasanjo is highly respected and as
far as the Nigerian nation is
concerned, there is no serious issue
that can be discussed without
people seeking his opinion and
listening to it.”
In the course of the interview,
Buhari disagreed with President
Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples
Democratic Party on the reasons
behind the postponement of the
general elections.
Although the ruling party insisted
that the Independent National
Electoral Commission was not
prepared for the elections, Buhari
maintained that INEC was forced by
the military to delay the elections
even after insisting it was
prepared.
Despite his disappointment, he
explained that since the action was
constitutional, the APC had asked
its supporters to obey the law and
remain calm but resolute.
Asked about the Boko Haram
insurgency, Buhari restated his
belief that the military had been
unable to overcome the insurgents
because resources meant for the
military had been misappropriated.
He cited scuttled plans by the
National Assembly to probe the
funding of the army over the last
three years and interviews granted
to the foreign media by soldiers,
who he said, claimed that they had
to fight without proper weapons, to
back his view.
He said, “The National Assembly
attempted to conduct a hearing by
getting the budget approved by
the National Assembly over the last
three years and inviting the service
chiefs to come and tell them why
the weapons were not procured
and sent to the soldiers under
competent leadership and that
hearing was scuttled.
“So, it showed the misapplication
or misappropriation of the
resources provided by government
and says why the Nigerian military
was unable to defeat Boko Haram.”
Regardless, Buhari said the military
was competent to tackle the
insurgency.
If elected as president, he said
achieving that goal would not be
“too difficult.”
“I believe this problem will not be
too difficult for the APC government
because we know the Nigerian
military is competent. It is a
question of making sure that the
money voted for equipment and
training is properly utilised,” he
said.
The APC’s presidential candidate
also said corruption had to be
tackled “because there are serious
citizens of this country that (have)
said unless Nigeria kills corruption,
corruption will kill Nigeria.”
In endorsing Buhari, Obasanjo had
said, “The circumstances he
(Buhari) will be working under if he
wins the elections are different
from the one he worked under
before, where he was both the
executive and the legislature – he
knows that. He is smart enough. He
is educated enough. He’s
experienced enough. Why
shouldn’t I support him?”
And Buhari expressed a similar
view when asked if he had
changed.
The former military dictator, who
admitted that some of the things
his regime was accused of had a
degree of accuracy, insisted that
things would be different.
“I think I would be judged harshly
as an individual that what
happened during military
administration can be extended
under multi-party democratic
system,” he said.