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Nigeria's Buhari roots for status quo as he begins campaign

Monday November 19 2018
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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By MOHAMMED MOMOH

President Muhammadu Buhari has launched campaign for his re-election in 2019 with a warning to Nigerians not to risk returning the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to power.

President Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) ousted PDP in 2015 after 16 years in office.

PDP candidate and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar was due to launch his policy document on Monday.

The 76-year-old president, gunning for the second term in office, also appealed to politicians to be peaceful and decent in their campaigns. He spoke at the launch of the Campaign Manual/Next Level Document at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday night.

Opportunistic few

“Our choices will shape us – our economic security and our future prosperity,’’ he said.

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Nigeria, President Buhari said, more than ever before, needed a stable and people-focused government to move the national agenda forward.

“I’m not unmindful that the National Assembly and the Presidential campaign starts today, I will employ candidates to go about the campaigns peacefully and decently.

“We have no other country, let us not set it ablaze because of politics,’’ he said.

President Buhari observed that the next four years would be quite significant as the country was faced with a choice to keep building a new Nigeria- making a break from its tainted past, which favoured an opportunistic few.

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Former Nigerian Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The Nigerian leader said the APC-led administration intended to exploit the comparative advantage of the geo-political zones and different states by developing six industrial parks and 109 Special Production and Processing Centres (SPPCs) across each senatorial district.

He said the objective was to move the country away from oil dependence.

“The march away from a mono-economy must continue with our focus on an industrialisation plan coming to fore," said the president.

“With specific plans underway to exploit the comparative advantage of the geo-political zones and different states by developing six Industrial Parks and 109 Special Production and Processing Centres (SPPCs) across each senatorial district, our incremental move away from oil dependence is assured.

“In addition, our development of the Special Economic Zones will quickly concretise our Made in Nigeria for Export (MINE) plan,’’ he added.

Secure future

The 72-year-old Abubakar, a two-time vice-president, said he would present his vision for Nigeria and his action plan to achieve it in his policy document.

His Presidential Campaign Organisation said the decision of Mr Abubakar to start his campaign with the launch of his policy document was to reiterate his commitment to run an issue-based campaign.

“The intention is to take our policy directly to Nigerians and to register the belief of Abubakar that it will take the collective efforts of every Nigerian to rebuild the country.

“That is why we want Nigerians to access the policy directly and ultimately take ownership of it,” PDP said in a statement.

It added that the party campaign would offer a simple message: “united, the people of Nigeria can begin anew, creating a prosperous and secure future and a better life for every Nigerian”.

Mr Abubakar, who returned to PDP from APC last March, said that Nigeria was dead and that he would work to revive it.

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