Buhari not too old for Presidency – APC chief

Fomer Head of State, Maj-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (retd.)

The camp of Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) in the All Progressives Congress on Wednesday dispelled speculations that the former military Head of State had dropped his aspiration to contest the 2015 Presidency on the grounds that he is too old.

One of Buhari’s associates, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, who was the National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (now part of the APC), told our correspondent that the 70-year-old was still vying for the APC’s presidential ticket.

Fashakin said Buhari had not considered giving up the Presidency because of age and asked how old the late Nelson Mandela was when he became South Africa’s President.

He said, “Nigerians should throw away the notion that Buhari will not run for Presidency because of age. He his running. He will be 71 in December and age is not against him. How old was Mandela when he became South African President? The people spreading that rumour just want to confuse people.

“Buhari is obviously the most popular of all the northern aspirants. He is the only person that can win the whole North-West, North-East and a great deal of North-Central. In 2011, he had over 12 million clean votes. These were the votes the Independent National Electoral Commission did not tamper with. I was the publicity secretary of the CPC so I knew a lot about what happened. The question is which of the other aspirants can be relied on to garner 12 million votes?

He added that there was every likelihood that the APC presidential candidate would be chosen from the North, in which case Buhari stands as the most qualified.

“Buhari is the only person that can win the presidential election for the APC. He ran for the Presidency on the platform of a party that came into being only 10 months to the election and still got 12 million votes. The fear is what will he do with a bigger platform? It’s not just some people in the APC that may be selling these lies, the PDP is also interested in who becomes the candidate of the APC,” he said.

Fashakin dismissed suggestions that Buhari should support younger northern presidential aspirants like Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso; or the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.

He said even if Buhari agreed to do so, such support would be of little effect because Buhari’s popularity in the North was not transferrable.

Fashakin said, “Even if Buhari raises the hand of any of the younger contestants, I can tell you that over half of the grass roots electorate in the North will tear their voter cards. Once Buhari drops out of the race, many of the northern voters will refuse to vote and the APC will not be able to get the required number of votes from the North to win the election.

He added that the APC had dropped the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket because it was not feasible in Nigeria today.

Copyright PUNCH.