Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Former presidential adviser and elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, has said that the poor performance of the current administration has vindicated him for refusing to endorse the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 presidential election.

Speaking during the stakeholders meeting involving socio-political and socio-cultural organizations to endorse the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in Abuja, Yakasai argued that President Buhari, lacking in competence and ability has failed Nigeria.

His words: “I am the Chairman of Northern Leaders Stakeholders, and we have decided to endorse the candidature of Atiku Abubakar. Therefore, it is in consonance with the thinking of this forum. As many people know, in 2015 presidential election, our group was not among those that endorsed the candidature of Buhari. We gave our reasons and today we have been vindicated.

“My experienced friend who has spent many years in politics told me that there are five ingredients of leadership. Where they are presence, the leadership is competent and where they are absence, the leadership is incompetent. Those five ingredients are integrity, capacity, competence, vision, ability.

“After examining the two leading presidential candidates for the 2019 presidential election, we found that only Atiku Abubakar possess those five qualities. Therefore, we endorse him based on his competence, ability, integrity, capacity and vision.

“I like to end by making a recommendation to the electoral commission through this leadership. I observed that in 2015, most of the returning officers from the states came from the same geopolitical zone. Most of them in an attempt to show that justice is done before the international community were short-changed because their mentality and mind-set have not changed.

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“I therefore recommend that the leadership of this forum should demand that INEC should not adopt the old procedure of 2015. The vice-chancellors to be used as electoral officers should not be posted in the states in the same geopolitical zone they come from. Somebody from South East for example, should not serve in any of the states in the zone. Ditto the other zones,” he cautioned.

A former chieftain of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buba Galadima, said that President Buhari had shown that he lacked the capacity to lead his family, village or community let alone a big country like Nigeria.

Expressing regret over his contributions in Buhari’s emergence as president, Galadima said: “We cannot stop at this meeting here but must sensitize people including the international community on the issues on ground. I, on my own, have just done that in other countries of the world by telling them exactly what to expect because this election is not only for Nigeria but the whole world. If Nigeria is balkanized, I don’t see any country in Africa that can accommodate the refugees from Nigeria.

“The person we are fighting is not only a retired militant officer but also somebody who is not a friend of anybody.

“I regret my input in bringing General Buhari to power. His performance is disgraceful to the nation. It is shameful to any Nigerian that the man we saw on television during the arranged town hall meeting is the president representing articulate and intelligent Nigerians.

“I don’t think anybody in that manner will pass a scale to be the head of his family or the head of his village, community let alone a country like Nigeria. We have seen on several podiums where the man even ceded his own presidential ticket to some other person.

“We have seen, severally where this man gave the flag of his governorship candidate to his minister. For example in my state, Yobe, he gave the flag to the Secretary of the Government of the Federation instead of the National Secretary of his party who is the governorship candidate. Can such a man in all honesty represent the sensibilities of Nigerians?

“Let me end by saying that all of us must work extra mile to ensure that these people did not return. They will destroy our country; they will destroy our future before our very eyes. It is a collective fight for every patriotic Nigerians, and those with conscience to get rid of these people,” he charged.