By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, has once again said that Nigerians should consider voting the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, insisting that the former Vice President is the most suitable candidate among the lot for the presidency as he has the the most transparent manifesto to take Nigeria and Nigerians to the level of immense comfort.

Dogara reiterated the remarks in a statement while appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for for stamping his feet to stamp out vote buying through the redesigning of the naira notes and phasing out of the N1000 and N500 notes from circulation. He praised the president for the initiative, saying he deserve a thunderous applause.

The former Speaker described Atiku as a statesman like no other and a father in every sense of the the word and a demonstrable source that gives life to everything around him, highlighting the very many administrative decisions that Atiku had taken in the past, which have made him a household name in government and business.

Dogara captured his descriptions of the Wazirin Adamawa in the following words:

I want to specifically commend President Buhari over the initiative to curb vote buying in the forthcoming general elections. I am not uninformed of nor unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesign and swap policy but I want to plead with Nigerians to endure it for this few weeks as sacrifice for a free, fair and credible election.

It’s a life lesson: that just as injury has pains so also recovery has pains. But if we have to get healed, we have to endure the pains. I urge us all to trudge on in the hope that these pains may truly be the birth pangs we may endure for a New Nigeria to be born.

For those criticizing the President on the issue of timing, I want to remind them in the words of Dr King Jnr that time is eternally neutral and, “the time is always ripe to do right.“ Let me end by calling on CBN to ensure the redesigned notes are made available to our people but even if the CBN failed to do so, my plea to all Nigerians is to endure the pains for few more weeks for our votes to count and for us to elect a President we truly deseve.

Let me emphatically say that the President has the sole Constitutional powers over currency matters and all those busy running their mouths because they have been denied the opportunity to deploy the ill gotten naira they have stashed to buy votes, that they are committing treason. The President is absolutely right not to have given in to the greed of the few against the needs of the many. While the President is right to have acted on what he knows and in the best interest of the country, his traducers are petty, unpatriotic, treacherous and grossly irresponsible.

Therefore, Mr President deserves our thunderous applause. Whoever writes it, history will be kind to Mr President if he doesn’t give in or give up on his resolve to ensure a free, fair and credible democratic election no matter the cost on the 25th Febuary, 2023 as scheduled by INEC.

Let me remind us that Nigeria is tottering on the precipice and for everyone who has ever wondered how the bottom looks like, this is it! No doubt these are moments of national peril! That is why we need a President who will hit the ground running from day one. If we love Nigeria, we can not afford to foist a rookie on her as President.

Tell me if any of the candidates comes close to HE Atiku Abubakar in terms of readiness to hit the ground running from day one. In case you dont know him, let me attempt the impossible task of introducing him to you.

HE Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa is a statesman like no other and a father in every sense of the the word, Abba. He is a demonstrable source that gives life to everything around him.

1. Give him pure water and he’ll turn it into Farro water
2. Show him a Primary school and he’ll turn it into a world class univeristy
3. Show him a jetty and he’ll turn it into a world class port
4. Give him a bull and a heifer and just few years and he ll give you a herd
5. Give him a bag of chaff and he’ll mill it into animal feed
6. Give him a bottle of bala blue and he’ll turn the cream to farro juice
7. Give him a home and he’ll bring Nigeria into it as family members
8. Make him walk into an environment where there is contention and fight and see how they fade into peace.

That is the rich pedigree that HE Atiku Abubakar will bring to the table as President.

We need a steady hand not a hand that must always be steadied because only a steady hand can steady a volatile Nigeria. We need a hand on which nothing dies not the hand that spills everything that is placed on it if we do not want our collective national destiny to be spilled.

We need a grounded leader not a feckless gormless pretender who has become a perfect gift to every level of comedy both local and internationally. By our votes, let us send a strong and clear message to those who want to foist this tasteless joke on us that Nigeria is no Comedy Cellar or Viva Blackpool.

Therefore:

For national healing and recovery, let us vote for Atiku

To end terrorism, banditry, insurgency, kidnap for ransom and sundry acts of criminality, let us vote for Atiku.

To rebuild shattered trust and strengthen national unity, let us vote for Atiku.

To bring order to national chaos, let us vote for Atiku.

To end religious divisions and engender religious harmony, let us vote Atiku.

To enthrone merit over mediocrity and nepotism, let us vote Atiku.

To permanently close IDP camps and ensure full resettlement, let us vote for Atiku

To create jobs and end youth unemployment and restiveness, let us vote for Atiku.

To ensure prosperry for all not prosperity for some, let us vote for Atiku.

To grow the economy and create jobs, let us vote for Atiku.

For a strong naira, let us vote for Atiku.

To lift millions of youths and women out of poverty, let us vote for Atiku.

To put an end to our oil and gas revenue addiction, let us vote for Atiku.

For a robust and functional physical and government infrastructure (roads, air, land, sea and rail transportation, electricity, ICT, e-government; etc), let us vote for Atiku.

To reduce our housing deficits, create and deploy a functional, affordable and efficient mortgage system, let us vote for Atiku.

For provision of not just education but qualitative education, let us vote for Atiku.

For provision of primary health care and affordable health insurence for all citizens at all levels, let us vote for Atiku

For agricultural revolution in order to grow what we eat and eat what we gow, let us vote for Atiku.

For Nigeria to be a global tourists destination, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a President who is a cultural architect that creates the atmosphere for every Nigerian to become more and with whom less becomes more, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a President who understands that compassion is not tossing a coin at a begger but pulling down the system that produces beggars, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a president who will end rent seeking as a business and inspires us to go into manufacturing and production because he is into to it himself, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a President who is not looking for electricity to roast corn but is already turning corn into meal for humans and animals, let us vote Atiku.

To elect a President who will rally us to action in poetry and govern us in prose not someone who does not understand the difference between the two, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a President who clearly understands what he is promising not someone who is making promises to fictional groups like,“wives of widows”, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a President who does not claim it is his turn to chop but realises he has to go to work to produce the food Nigerians deperately yearn for, let us vote for Atiku

To elect a president who knows that only God gives power and that it is never anyone’s turn to take power, let us vote for Atiku.

To elect a President who will hold his ground, not one that the ground must hold, before any audience in the world and bring honour not shame and dignity to all Nigerians, let us vote Atiku.

And for Atiku’s covenant with Nigeria, the implementation of which will unlock Nigeria’s manifest glorious destiny, let us vote for Atiku.

It was Victor Hugo who reminded us that, “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” Atiku represents an idea whose time has come. By the grace of God, who alone gives power, Atiku will soon be President – elect and Mr President by May. Let us go from here determined to be intruments in God’s hand to make it happen. Come on, friends, we are well able. See you on inauguration day!

God bless you and may God bless our country Nigeria.

The 2023 presidential election holds on Saturday, February 25, 2023.