Saboteurs Attack As Buhari’s Craves For Fair Election Legacy

There was an air of accomplishment in the travelling party last Thursday as President Muhammadu Buhari prepared to leave Abuja Airport for Daura to cast his vote in the General Election beginning today with the presidential and National Assembly elections that aides hope will underline his legacy in office.

The president is not expected to return to Abuja until after the governorship election holding on March 11, having satisfied himself that he had just enunciated about the most veritable policy to safeguard his legacy.

That legacy is to supervise a clean and fair election that would enthrone his successor as one truly enthroned by the people.

The day before the presidential party departed Abuja, the president had boldly voiced that claim.

With his still unknown successor seated among an array of local and international dignitaries at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, last Wednesday, President Buhari had affirmed his determination to leave a legacy of free and fair elections at the signing of the peace accord among the presidential candidates.

“We have demonstrated that with the off-circle elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states. We allowed Nigerians to decide who should govern them. We are committed to this legacy till the very last day of my administration,” Buhari had said.

Who that successor would be among the presidential candidates that gathered last Wednesday would be determined today as Nigerians go to the polls in the first leg of the General Elections that would elect a president, vice-president, 108 senators-elect and 360 members of the House of Representatives.

The election for a senator for Enugu-East Senate Constituency that is expected to make up the 109 member Senate is to hold on a latter date following the killing of one of the candidates, Oyibo Chukwu, the Labour Party candidate in the election.

Saturday Vanguard reports that Chukwu was killed hours after President Buhari finished his declaration of passing on a legacy of a free and fair election.

The killing of Chukwu, however, put a question as to the capacity of the president to carry through with his pledge on a free and fair election.

It is a question that has come to the fore with the rebellion from the president’s support base within the All Progressives Congress, APC and even within the cabinet.

While Buhari’s stance on a free and fair poll has been publicly praised across the political spectrum, his actions have ironically been seriously assailed in the ruling APC.

Nigerians were shocked when videos of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the erstwhile national chairman of the APC emerged on Wednesday assailing Buhari over the naira redesign policy of the government.

All this wahala wen Buhari put for currency change my hand no dey inside. Our party don tell Buhari say if e wan change currency e for change am during him own election. Wetin you no do during your time you wan take am spoil another person time, e no good. Una know say we campaign for am. At this point only God we go dey fear. He has to obey the Supreme Court.

Besides Oshiomhole, other party chiefs including governors have assailed Buhari over the implementation of the naira redesign policy.

However, a presidency source dismissed the objections of the APC chiefs telling Saturday Vanguard in words that seemed to underpin Buhari’s crave for a lasting legacy on a free transition that would usher in a president elected not because of the money they dispense.

“We have had successive elections in Ondo, Kogi, Edo, and Ekiti and Osun and all the reports indicated progressive improvements in the elections. However, one commentary among all the observers including the international observers is the culture of vote buying. They all kept on saying that the election process was improving but that vote-buying was a recurring scar.

“So, by introducing these policies, it would be seen as a deliberate attack on the culture of corruption and I know it may be painful but in the long run, it is the best for the country.”

“We are happy that we have the support of the citizenry and also significantly, you can see that the international community has also been appreciative of the move because this is what they want having observed that vote buying is the weak link in our electoral process,” the senior Buhari government official told Saturday Vanguard.

“The whole world is going cashless and in a cashless society you are able to minimize the corruption.”

Remarkably, with the president being flayed by his party men and even some aides over the naira redesign policy, support for the president has come from the opposition who understandably believe that they could benefit from the president’s last-minute drive against corruption.

Phrank Shaibu, Special assistant to Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential candidate hailed the president on the naira redesign policy saying that the president would leave a legacy that could well cover up for most of his failures in the last seven years.

Unlike Oshiomhole who claimed that the president did not mean well for the APC and perhaps the country because of the naira redesign policy, the Atiku aide averred that the policy could be the best legacy of the Buhari era.

“I think the man means well and at 80 there is nothing else that the man needs or desires as he has been everything he can be in Nigeria. So, what else does he want but a good name and which I see him pursuing now.”

Asked if the president means well for the country, Shaibu said:

“The clearest sign for us is that members of his own political party are the ones that are fighting him, calling him names and insulting him over the path he has chosen that votes will count and I don’t think that there is a better indication of his goodwill than this.”

Meanwhile, a top aide of the president has said that the presidency is expecting more savage attacks on the president in the days ahead following his decision to tow the path of neutrality in the election starting today.

He spoke in reaction to comments that even aides and ministers were openly expressing divergent views with the president on the naira redesign policy.

“I can tell you that more of them will come out in the coming days as many of them are making plans for life after Buhari and that is human nature and with many professional politicians. Many of them will show their heads very soon,” the Buhari aide said as he prepared to leave for Daura to mount vigil for the election that will be the legacy of the government.

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