Apparently not shaken by the alleged anti-democratic schemes of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) regarding the current election cycle in Nigeria, former Rivers State Governor, Celestine Omehia, has gone spiritual, saying God will fight the battle for them.
For Omehia, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), God has chosen Atiku Abubakar, their presidential candidate, to solve the problems of Nigeria.
Insisting, he spoke from Port Harcourt, the state capital, ‘’the choice of Atiku Abubakar as PDP presidential candidate is divine and there is no scheme against it that will subsist.’’
The Omehia spiritual came as his party, the PDP rang a potentially dangerous alarm that the Buhari Presidency and the APC are allegedly seeking to pull down the country, pitch her against the global community and in a seeming desperate bid to return Nigeria to a pariah state status.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said, ‘’it is indeed worrisome that having realised that they have no chance in the February 16 Presidential election, the Buhari Presidency and the APC are seeking to pull down our country, pitch her against the global community and return us to a pariah nation status.’’
In Port Harcourt, hundreds of thousands of Rivers people from their 23 local government areas have formally declared their endorsement of Atiku to lead the country out of the woods.They took over the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt and its environs displaying several PDP promotional campaign materials, sang pro-Atiku and Pro-Wike songs to emphasise their preference .
Governor Nyesom Wike assured that Rivers will vote for Atiku, pointing out that the electorate believe in the capacity of the former vice president to develop the country.
According to Wike, ‘’PDP represents the light the country is craving for, while APC is neck deep in darkness. APC is darkness and PDP is light. APC is dictatorship and PDP means freedom. Rivers people have chosen to vote light and freedom, hence all our votes are for the PDP. Rivers is Atikulated.’’
State party Chairman Felix Obuah said that Rivers people will vote 100 percent for Atiku, adding that the Monday presidential campaign rally in the state was a rehearsal for the victory party after the election of Atiku as the new president of the country.
Atiku himself has assured that his administration will address the infrastructural needs of Rivers and the Niger Delta as a whole and that the seaports in the state will be revived for the purpose of job creation, economic growth and the massive development of Rivers.
Atiku also pointed out that his administration will complete the East-West Road that was started by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, but abandoned by the Federal Government under Buhari’s watch.
‘’APC has not done anything for Rivers and the Niger Delta. I will protect the constitution. I will not interfere with the National Assembly because I believe in the separation of powers. I will not interfere with the Judiciary because I believe in checks and balances. I will uphold the rule of law’’, he said.
On the alleged President Buhari’s for violence speech in Zamfara State, he said ‘’we are not going to allow anyone to knock our heads and make us fight in this country. We want peace, we want development,we want jobs. We are not ready to fight ourselves again. Any leader who has come to instigate to fight, we will use our ballot papers to throw them out. Buhari must go.’’
While Atiku described Wike as a true leader and devoted politician who has transformed Rivers and defended the survival of the PDP, former President Goodluck Jonathan declared that Nigerians are working for the election of Atiku because he has the capacity to lead the country out of her stagnation.
‘’In 2015, I mentioned that the choice before Nigerians is either to move forward or backwards. Within the past four years, all the indices of development, we have not made progress in any of them. I believe that you all know that as a nation, we cannot continue to stay where we are. We believe that the only person that can get us out of the woods, is Atiku’’, Jonathan said.
While he said Atiku will move Nigeria forward and will not discriminate against any section of the country, the former Anambra State Governor and Atiku’s running mate, Peter Obi said only his principal can restore the oil-polluted Niger Delta because he believes in restructuring.
Just as Obi noted that Atiku will create jobs and make the country to start working again, Senate President Bukola Saraki unequivocally declared that Atiku will develop Nigeria and drive away poverty and accordingly urged Nigerians to defend their votes.
PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus said despite the desperation of the APC, Buhari is heading to a woeful defeat because of his failure in governance, adding that Governor Wike on the strength of his performance, will be re-elected for a second term.
Atiku’s wife, Jennifer, said Rivers people are fully Atikulated and would come out to vote her husband massively to usher in the birth of a new era.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State said the North-West geo-political zone has resolved to vote out ‘’the failed President Buhari because he promotes prison yard democracy and retrogression.’’
Meanwhile, PDP has said that the incessant threats by the Buhari Presidency and the APC to Nigerians and international bodies that are committed to peaceful 2019 general election is worrisome.
According to the party, ‘’the threats by the Buhari Campaign Organisation to the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Stuart Symington, as well as attempts to demonise the envoy for his country’s caution against hate speech in our electioneering discourse by desperate politicians is to say the least, embarrassing.
‘’Just as the proverbial old woman who takes offence whenever dry bones are mentioned, the Buhari Presidency and the APC are furious and issuing threats at this open and well-intentioned caution by peace loving members of the global community because they are directly culpable.
‘’Only on Sunday, President Buhari at his campaign rally in Zamfara state made incendiary comments and encouraged his audience to join the APC in its planned resort to violence and self-help in the 2019 general election.
‘’It is instructive to recall that this direct threat by the Buhari Campaign Organisation is coming days after the Governor of Kaduna State, and APC chieftain, Nasir el-Rufai, threatened that members of the global democratic institutions working towards peaceful 2019 general elections in our country will return in body bags.’’
