BUHARI: THE PATRIOT

Posted on December 31, 2014

2014 in review: Blog Summary

Posted on December 30, 2014 Updated on December 30, 2014

2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 18,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

LIKE EXECUTHIEVES LIKE LEGISLOOTERS

Posted on December 28, 2014

Basic Salary (B.S) – N2 484 245.50
Hardship Allowance (50 per cent of B.S) – N1 242 122.70
Constituency Allowance (200 per cent of B.S) – N4 968 509.00
Newspapers Allowance (50 per cent of B.S) – N1 242 122.70
Wardrobe Allowance (25 per cent of B.S) – N621 061.37
Recess Allowance (10 per cent of B.S) – N 248 424.55
Accommodation (200 per cent of B.S) – N4 968 509.00
Utilities (30 per cent of B.S) – N828 081.83
Domestic Staff (70 per cent of B.S) – N1 863 184.12
Entertainment (30 per cent of B.S) – N828 081.83
Personal Assistants (25 per cent of B.S) – N621 061.12
Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (75 per cent of B.S) – N1 863 184.12
Leave Allowance (10 per cent of B.S) – N248 424.55
Severance Gratuity (300 per cent of B.S) – N7 452 736.50
Car Allowance (400 per cent of B.S) – N 9 936 982.00
TOTAL MONTHLY SALARY = N29 479 749.00 ($181 974.00)
TOTAL YEARLY SALARY = N29 479 749.00 x 12
= N353 756 988.00 ($2 183 685.00)
EXCHANGE RATE: $1 = N162

LEGISLATORS PAY WORLDWIDE PER ANNUM
Britain – $105 400.00
United States – $174 000.00
France – $85 900.00
South Africa – $104 000.00
Kenya – $74 500.00
Saudi Arabia – $64 000.00
Brazil – $157 600.00
Ghana – $46 500.00
Indonesia – $65 800.00
Thailand – $43 800.00
India – $11 200.00
Italy – $182 000.00
Bangladesh – $4,000.00
Israel – $114 800.00
Hong Kong – $130 700.00
Japan – $149 700.00
Singapore – $154 000.00
Canada – $154 000.00
New Zealand – $112 500.00
Germany – $119 500.00
Ireland – $120 400.00
Pakistan – $3 500.00
Malaysia – $25 300.00
Sweden – $99 300.00
Sri Lanka – $5 100.00
Spain – $43 900.00
Norway – $138 000.00
In terms of lawmakers’ salaries as a ratio of GDP per capita, the gap is even much wider. While the salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person, that of a British member of parliament is just 2.7 times.
The average salary of Nigerian worker based on the national minimum wage is N18 000.00,
So, the yearly salary is N18 000.00 x 12 = N216,000.00 ($1 333.00)
Remember, Yearly Salary of Nigerian Senator = $2, 183, 685.00
Proportion: $2 183 685.00/$1 333.00 = 1 638
It will take an average Nigerian worker 1,638 years to earn the yearly salary of a Nigerian Senator.”
Source: The Economist

My Manifesto and Vision for Nigeria – Muhammadu Buhari

Posted on December 21, 2014 Updated on December 21, 2014

Preamble

1. Every country has its ‘lost generation’. Some were stolen away by war, some by economic downturns, and some by governments. Nigeria is perhaps the only country stolen by a cabal of political Mafias, merely for power, money, leisure and privilege. When the British administrators lowered the Union Jack in Lagos on October 1, 1960, Nigeria was Africa’s greatest hope. Its pool of talent mass of fertile land, and its newly discovered oil wealth, promised economic transformation and the role of leading the then independent African nations and those who were still struggling for freedom, under different forms of colonialism, to eventually lead the African Continent, onto the global stage.

2. Now, over fifty years of independence and despite our vast wealth – abundant natural and human resources, at home and abroad, we as a nation continue to struggle with the most basic needs (food, shelter, water, security sanitation, and electricity, etc. As a nation, we are paralyzed by wide spread poverty, endemic institutionalised corruption; high levels of unemployment; a near total collapse of our educational system and facilities, collapse and decaying health and ineffective social services systems, chaotic transportation and communications systems; and other basic but essential infrastructure; less than adequate institutions of government at all levels, resulting to break down of law and order, institutionalized insecurity to life and property; and weak, fragile and unstable economy, with non-functional financial institutions, etc.

3. Today, hospitals and universities are struggling with obsolete skills of by-gone centuries; insurgency controls large chunks of the Nigerian territories, kidnapping is now a profession and a cottage industry. For the little and common man and women who helped build this nation, things have never been so bad for these fellows. But for the corrupt politicians and big moneys bags, things have never been better.

4. Many Nigerians have completely lost faith in the country’s ability to govern itself. Nigerians have fundamentally, lost faith in the leaders at the helm of the nation’s affairs. The lack of confidence in the system and its leaders, erodes democratic principles thus further jeopardizing the country’s future.

5. Nigerians of goodwill, are angered by failures of corrupt and poor leadership. They are frustrated by economic policies that did not deliver on its promises. Nigerians are therefore impatient and want to regain their lost rights. Nigerians are worn out by conflicts, all over the country. Nigerians are now striving for a fresh start. This start must come from a new team, new ideas, that are committed to the promotion of acceptable and sustainable reforms. The mood now in Nigeria is changing as people begin to speak out more confidently against corruption, human rights abuses, and are not afraid to criticize and critique the unpopular policies of government. Throughout Nigeria there is ongoing debate on what is critical to the future of the country: CHANGE! POSITIVE CHANGE!!

6. What is certain in Nigeria today is that the ebtire country is in need of being fixed. The truth of the matter is that Nigeria today has all the indices for both success and failure. Skewing the role of the State towards serving special interests, dividing its citizens along ethnic and religious lines, trapping whole generations into avoidable poverty through educating the young with basically, no skill, etc., are all attempt to perpetually one set of corrupt leaders in power, forever, these are the indices of a failed state. However, assuming the will to power, by this other Nigeria, to remove the incompetent, corrupt leaders, with no progressive ideals, is the success side. The making of this competent team has become more urgent and imperative, but this can only be achieved through resilience and courage. I, Muhammadu Buhari have now come for the rescue. This is success by design. It will overcome our failure by design matrix.

7. The challenge, and choice facing all Nigerians at home and abroad is whether Nigerians have enough will and courage to unite, and resolve to radically move the nation forward –not looking backward to practices of a failed past, but building bridges to the positive fatherhood, motherhood, brother and sisterhood of the future! Again, my teaming supports are already leading the way to this possibility.

8. As a nation and the Sub Saharan Africa’s leading energy producer, we had in the past squandered the opportunity to build functional infrastructure to better the lives of the average Nigerian. We can no longer afford this luxury of inactivity. We must revive our public and private sectors in order to provide functional services and secure the good of the individual Nigerian and his or her family.
We are here commited to Change Nigeria:

The challenge, facing all of us as Nigerians is whether there is enough will and courage amongst us as citizens to unite, commit and resolve to radically reform, modernise and move the nation forward. I Muhammadu Buhari have resolved that the task ahead of me is that of Securing our Nation and Prospering our people –not looking backward to the failed policies and promises of the past. As I noted before, it is no longer a question of choice but that of the will and courage. This document sets out our side of the bargain: the things I as your future president, want to do to change Nigeria for the better. I will however warn you all: I cannot do this alone. Each one of you and I must work together to get our economy on the right track, mend our broken lives, infrastructure, institutions, and the overall society. You must help me to reform our rotten political system, by getting involved, taking responsibility, and working together as a team. I, Muhammadu Buhari believe that our politity, is broken. Our nation is in urgent need of a fundamental political reform. This requires honesty, integrity and forthrightness in order to improve governance, so as to make it transparent and accountable to the all Nigerian.

THIS IS HOW I, WITH YOUR HELP, WILL FIX IT:

On Politics and Governance:

I, Muhammadu Buhari, believe that our politics is broken. Our nation urgently needs fundamental political reform and improvement in governance more transparency and accountable. If you nominate me in December, 2014 and elect me in February 2015, my administration will:

1. Initiate action to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties, and responsibilities to states in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit;

2. Strengthen INEC to reduce, if possible, eliminate electoral malpractices in Nigerian’s political life;

3. Attract the best and brightest of our sons and daughters into our politics and public service by aggressive recruitment of private sector people, academics, and professionals within Nigeria and in the Diaspora through internships, fellowships, executive appointments, and special nomination to contest elective offices;

4. Prevent the abuse and misuse of Executive, Legislative and Public offices, through greater accountability, transparency, strict, and implementable anti-corruption laws, through strengthening and sanitising the EFCC and ICPC as independent entities;

5. Amend the Constitution to remove immunity from prosecution for elected officers in criminal cases;

6. Restructure governance for a leaner, more efficient, and adequately compensated public service sector, while promoting effective participation of the private sector for more robust job creation programmes to employ the teaming youth.;

7. Require full disclosure in media outlets, of all government contracts over N100m prior to award and during implementation at regular intervals;

8. Reform and Strengthen the Justice System for efficient administration and dispensation of justice with the creation of special courts for accelerated hearing of corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism and similar cases of national importance;

9. Fully enforce the Freedom of Information Act l so that government held data sets can be requested and used by the public and then such data sets be publish on regular basis;

10. Amend the Constitution to require Local governments to publish their meeting minutes, service performance data, and items of spending over N10M.

Security and Conflict Resolution

On National Security and Defence: I will urgently secure the territorial integrity of the nation. I will never leave the defence of the nation in the hands of Hunters, Children, and Civilian JTF through the following:

1. Urgently address capacity building mechanisms of law enforcement agents in terms of quantity and quality as this is critical in safeguarding the sanctity of lives and property;

2. Establish a well trained, adequately equipped and goals driven Serious Crime Squad to combat insurgencies, kidnapping, armed robbery, ethno‐religious and communal clashes, nationwide;

3. Consult and amend the Constitution to enable States and Local Governments to create city, Local government and State Policing systems, base on the resources available at each levels, to address the peculiar needs of each community. I will therefore work with the National Assembly to set and revised, when needed, boundaries of operations, for Federal, State, and Local government policing units, through new Criminal Justice legislation to replace the Criminal Code, the Penal Code and the Police Act.

4. I will push for more robust support in the Security and Economic stability of the West-African sub‐region and African Continent as a whole. I will seek and maintain close and frank relationship with ALL of West Africa; Special relationship with South Africa and its Sub-region; UK, USA, Canada, EU, Asia, and the Middle East .

ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION, NATIONAL UNITY, AND SOCIAL HARMONY: I will

1. Establish a Conflict Resolution Commission to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve civil conflicts within the polity;

2. Bring permanent peace and solution to the insurgency issues in the North-East; the Niger Delta; and other conflict prone states and areas such as Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Borno, Abia, Taraba, Yobe, and Kaduna in order to engender national unity and social harmony;

3. Initiate policies to ensure that Nigerians are free to live and work in any part of the country by removing state of origin, tribe, ethnic and religious affiliations from documentation requirements in our identification of citizens and replace these with State of Residence and fashion out the appropriate minimal qualification for obtaining such a state of residency, nation-wide.

On Foreign Policy: I will:
1. Make regional integration a priority within ECOWAS including free trade with a view to ensuring that common tariff currency are in use by the end of my term in office, under Nigeria’s guidance and leadership, base on the size of its market force;

2. Maintain a strong, close and frank relationship within the Gulf of Guinea, the Commonwealth, South Africa and the rest of the world.

3. Establish a special relationship with the leading emerging markets like Brazil; Russia, India and China (BRIC) and other strategic partners around the world.
The Economy & Infrastructure Base

On the Economy: I will

1. Maintain sound Micro and macro‐economic policy environment, and run an efficient government and preserve the independence of the Central Bank;

2. Restore financial confidence in the citizens and the world, by putting in place a more robust monitoring, supervising, and regulating of the financial institutions;

3. Make our economy one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world with a real GDP growth averaging at least 10-12% annually

4. As at 1999, Nigerian rate of unemployment stood at about 8%, today it is estimated from official statistics to be close to 30%. I will embark on vocational training, entrepreneurial and skills acquisition scheme for graduates along with the creation of Small Business Loan Guarantee Scheme to create at least 5 million new jobs by 2019. A Small and Medium Enterprises Development Commission will be created for this purpose. I will also encourage State Governments to focus on employment creation, by matching everyone job created in the same state.

5. Integrate the informal economy into the mainstream and prioritize the full implementation of the National Identification Scheme to generate the relevant data;

6. Expand domestic demand and will undertake associated public works programmes to achieve this goal;

7. Embark on export and production diversification including investment in infrastructure; promote manufacturing, through Agro Based industries; and expand and promote sub‐regional trade through ECOWAS and AU;

8. Make Information Technology, Manufacturing, Agriculture and Entertainment key drivers of our economy, by reviewing the present reward system, which is based on certification, to that based on skills, competencies, and performances;

9. Balance the Nigerian economy across regions by the creation of 6 Regional Economic Development Agencies (REDAs) to act as sub‐regional hubs in order to promote healthy regional competitiveness;
10. Put in place a N300bn Regional Growth Fund with an average of N50bn in each geo‐political region; to be managed by the REDAs, to encourage private sector enterprise and to support places currently reliant on only on the public sector, to migrate to a private sector reality;

11. Amend the Constitution and the Land Use Act to create freehold/leasehold interests in land along with matching grants for states to create a nationwide electronic land title register on a state by state basis;

12. Create an additional middle‐class of at least 4 million new home owners by 2019 by enacting a national mortgage single digit interest rates for purchase of owner occupier houses as well as review the collateral qualification to make funding for home ownership easier, with a 15 to 30 year mortgage terms. This will equally help our banking system migrate from short to long term perspective of their role in sustaining the economy.

13. Create a Social Welfare Program of at least Five Thousand Naira (N5000) that will cater for the 25 million poorest and most vulnerable citizens upon the demonstration of children’s enrolment in school and evidence of immunisation to help promote family stability.

14. Provide allowances to the discharged but unemployed Youth Corps members for Twelve (12) months while in the skills and entrepreneurial development programmes.

On Agriculture: I will

1. Modernize the sector and change Nigeria from being a country of self‐subsistence farmers to that of a medium/large scale farming nation/producer;

2. Create a nationwide food inspectorate division with a view to improving nutrition and eliminating food‐borne hazards

3. Inject sufficient funds to the Agricultural sector to create more agro‐allied jobs by way of loans at nominal interest rates for capital investment on medium and commercial scale cash crops;

4. Guarantee a minimum price for all cash crops and facilitate storage of agricultural products to overcome seasonal shortages of selected food crops.

5. Move the nation to an all year round small, medium, and commercial farming through a coordinated integrative irrigation of our existing dams as well as creation of more dam to collect the over flooding waters, nationwide.

6. Revive our Agricultural Research Institutes that are in a state of comatose;

7. Review and strengthened Veterinary practices nationwide.

On Infrastructure: I will

1. Review the Public Private Partnership (PPP) enabling environment with a view to addressing the legal, regulatory and operational bottlenecks, challenging the effective administration of the system, by introducing enabling legislation. In addition, I will create a National Infrastructural Development Bank to provide loans at nominal interest rates, exclusively for this sector;

2. Generate, transmit and distribute electricity on a 24/7 basis whilst simultaneously ensuring the development of sustainable/renewable energy, by 2019.

3. Embark on a National Infrastructural Development Programme as a Public Private Partnership that will (a) ensure 5,000km of Superhighway including service trunks and (b) building of up to 6,800km of modern railway completed by 2019;

4. Enact new legal and regulatory frameworks to establish independent regulation and incentives to accelerate public and private sector investment in seaports, railways, and inland waterways;

5. Embark on PPP schemes that will ensure every one of the 36 states has one functional airport, with all 21st Century safety tools for effective commercial air travel.

On the Oil and Gas Industry: I will

1. Revive and reactivate our minimally performing Refineries to optimum capacity;

2. Make the industry and Nigeria one of the world leading/cutting edge centres for clean oil and gas technology; also producing leading world Oil and Gas technologist, scientists, and owing mega structure installations, drilling, processing, and production facilities and engineers. These facilities and scientists will be supported with the best services and research facilities.

3. Fully develop the sector’s capacity to absorb more of the nation’s new graduate in the labour market. The sector will be funded to produce more home‐grown, but world class engineers, scientists, technologist, etc.;

4. Modernise the NNPC and make it the national energy champion. I will consider breaking it up into more efficient, commercially driven units; and may strip it of its regulatory powers, so as to enable it tap into international capital market;

5. Enforce the government master plan for oil companies to end flaring that pollutes the air and damages the communities and people’s health and ensure that they sell at least half of their gas produced within Nigeria;

6. Speedily pass the much‐delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and ensure that local content issues are fully addressed

7. Make Nigeria the world’s leading exporter of LNG through the creation of strategic partnerships.
The Society & Human Capital Development

On Education: I will

1. Fully review provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act with emphasis on gender equity in primary, secondary school enrolment whilst improving the quality and substance of our schools, through outcome based education, that address the individual, family, and societal roles in education; and the associative skills and competencies that go with these responsibilities;

2. Targeting up to 20% of our annual budget for this critical sector whilst making substantial investments in training quality teachers at all levels of the educational system;

3 Implement a performance based education, predicated on outcomes, skills, and competences as against the current certificate based qualification. I will adjust the reward system accordingly too. This way, exams malpractice and certificate forgery will be resolved once and for all. Young men and women interested in real liberal arts education, based on a true understanding of scientific, the humanistic, and the social sciences will fill our classrooms to be prepared for future leadership of the nation;

4. Enhance teacher training and improve the competence of teachers in the light of the 21st Century and beyond understanding of the learner types, intelligence types, as the multiple assessment types, in order to open up learning for all our children types. The era of one student type will give way to an all learner type for our children and young people as well as adults who want to return to the classroom to sharpen their skills, competencies, and sensibilities. This re-engineering of our education will be followed with a clearly thought out and vigorous national inspection programmes;

5. Make learning experiences more meaningful for children as the nation’s education will no longer be a preparation for life, but life itself. Our children will be democratised for education, rather than be educated for democracy. This view of education will make educating our children more cost‐effective in the long run;

6. Provide One Meal a day for all Primary school pupils. That will create jobs in Agriculture, Catering, and Delivery Services
7. Develop and promote effective use of innovative teaching methods/materials in our schools;

8. Ensure a greater proportion of expenditure on university education is devoted to helping our youth to understand the juxtaposition of Science, Technology, the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

9. Establish at least six new universities of Science and Technology with satellite campuses in various states. These six universities should be fully equipped with ICT technologies in order to attract and encourage small and medium scale ICT enterprises after their university education;

10. Establish technical colleges and vocational centres in each state of the federation;

11. Provide more conducive environment for private sector participation in all levels of education. Re-authorised the NUC, TETFUN, JAMB, etc, Acts to enable Private institutions of Higher learning to benefit from research funds and programmes that will serve the national good;

12. Establish six centers of excellence to address the needs of special education;

On Healthcare: I will

1. Prioritise the reduction of the infant mortality rate substantially; reduce maternal mortality rates to the levels acceptable by the World Health Organisation; reduce HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases drastically and improve life expectancy by an additional 10 years on average through our National Healthy Living program;

2. Increase the number of physicians from 19 per 1000 population to 50 per 1000 through deliberate medication education as epitomize by nations such as Ghana. I will increase national health expenditure per person per annum to about N50,000 (from the less than N10,000 currently);

3. Increase the quality of all federal government owned hospitals to world class standard by 2019;
4. Invest in cutting edge technology such as tele‐medicine in all major health centers in the country through partnership programmes with communities and the private sector;

5. Provide free ante‐natal care for pregnant women; free health care for babies and children up to school going age and for the aged; and free treatment for those afflicted with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS;

6. Boost the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals and make non adulterated drugs readily available.

7. Set an effective prosecution and punishment systems, for those importing or adulterating drugs in the country.

8. The enhancement of the Epidemiological Units / Centres for Diseas Control to meet up with Global standards in containment of disease outbreaks, proper vaccine storage and research;

9. Create an Insurance Policy for our Journalists as the nation faces hard times and our Journalists faces more dangers in the discharge of their investigative work, to educate Nigerians in their rights and responsibilities.

On Youth, Sports and Culture: I will:

1. Provide the opportunities such as setting up functional recreational facilities, Library with e-services, Community Centers, in collaboration with States, Local Government Authorities, Local Development Areas, etc for youth to realize, harness, and develop their potentials to the fullest, in order to facilitate the emergence of the new generation of citizens, who will be committed to the sustenance of good governance and service to the people and the country;

2. Establish Zonal world class sports academies and training institutes and ensure that Nigeria occupies a place of pride in global sports and athletics;

3. Revive and restructure the Nigerian Football League and put incentives in place to make it as competitive as other national leagues

4. Put in place measures to identify talents early and ensure their participation in local and international games to enable them to be true professionals;

5. Help as well as mandate schools and communities to create neighborhood playgrounds/sports centre. I will create matching support funds for communities to acquire the needed equipment to develop skills and competencies;

6. Assist Nollywood to fully develop into world class movie industry that can compete effectively with Hollywood and Bollywood in due course. I will support the creative and performing arts with the necessary environment where by our great entertainers do not end their lives in abject poverty as is currently the case.

On Women Empowerment– I will:

1. Ensure the rights of women are protected as enshrined in our Constitution;

2. Guarantee that women are adequately represented in government appointments and provide greater opportunities in education, Job creation, and economic empowerment;

3. Recognize and protect women empowerment and gender equality with special emphasis on economic activities in the rural areas;

4. Use the Party structures to promote the concept of reserving a minimum number of seats in the States and National Assembly, for women.

On the Environment: I will

1. Ensure compliance with policies and measures to halt the pollution of rivers and waterways in the Niger Delta and the other parts of the country;

2. Create shelter belts in states bordering the Sahara Desert to mitigate and reverse the effects of the expanding desert

3. Support and accelerate the implementation of regional water transport initiatives across the country through effective dredging of the main waterways ;

4. Adopt a holistic approach to erosion and shoreline protection across the country;

5. Create teams of volunteers to plant and nurture economically viable trees in arid regions;

6. Restructure the Ecological Fund Office to enable it meet today’s environmental challenges;

7. Regulate the timber industry to ensure that double the number of trees felled are planted by the loggers;

8. Ensure full compliance with town‐planning and environmental laws and edicts.

ME, MY ARTICLES AND I

Posted on December 20, 2014

I often receive friend requests from people who are attracted by my write-ups. Some of them get disappointed when the read some of my articles on religion. I have received messages from people about it and one of the messages reads as follows:

“Steve, I enjoy reading your articles but can you please leave religion out of it? Religion is a sensitive issue”.

I think we are failing to understand that no crime is well committed like the one committed under a religious conviction. For instance, Abubakar Shekau is killing innocent people because he believes that he is doing the will of Allah and if he dies, he will go to Jannah. Some public servants and politicians are looting their people to stupor because they believe they can bribe God through their pastors. Some African traditional worshipers still believe that their prayers cannot reach their ancestors unless a human blood is offered to the gods.

If you are a Nigerian and you want to enjoy reading my write-ups on Facebook or my blog, please put this in mind:
1) Love yourself very well
2) Love your neighbour as yourself
3) Love God through your neighbours
4) Love Nigeria with all your might and strength and place Nigeria in your heart above any other country including Saudi Arabia and Israel
5) Put step 1 to 4 before your tribe and religion
……then we are good to go
~Right from creation, statements of truth are often seen as controversial by man~

GEN. MUHAMMADU BUHARI’S SPEECH TO THE DELEGATES OF ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC)

Posted on December 11, 2014

My Dear Delegates,

As you gather for our convention, please remember that history, change and the hopes of Nigeria are there with you. They are there to ask you to perform according to your best judgment and patriotic conscience. I also ask you to do the same.

We seek a new Nigeria. It starts with us. It starts today. I have placed myself before you seeking your help to nominate me as your standard bearer for our progressive party, APC.

Personal ambition does not drive me in this regard. I seek to be the next president of our beloved nation because I believe I have something to offer Nigeria at this time of multiple crises. Insecurity, corruption, and economic collapse have brought the nation low. Time is past due that we work together to lift Nigeria up. I am ready to lead Nigeria to its rightful future.

I have always served Nigeria to the best of my ability. I have always tried to give more to the nation than it has given me. This is the principle of service that has guided my public life. Thus, I am not a rich person. I can’t give you a fistful of dollars or naira to purchase your support. Even if I could, I would not do so. The fate of this nation is not up for sale.

What I will give you, and this nation is all of my strength, commitment, sweat and toil in the service of the people. What I can give you is my all.

The PDP has been in power much too long for the little good it has done. For the past six years, Nigeria has walked backwards carrying the weight of PDP’s incompetence on its shoulders.

Due to its broken leadership, Nigeria has been afflicted by a strange illness. We are a great nation riddled by endless crises. Instead of resolving problems, this government multiplies and manufactures them.

PDP cannot stand before us and say things have gotten better under its direction. It has only gotten worse and it’s now time for change.

PDP’s government may say that it needs more time – that what we need now is continuity – but we do not.

What we need now is change!

I know what it takes to achieve real change – I have led our nation before – in times almost as unhappy as these.

I know that to solve our problems we need real leadership, not warm words and empty promises. A leader needs integrity and strength – and an unbending commitment to do what is right.

I know that leaders must not just mouth words about change – they must embody it in their lives and their values.

My love for Nigeria is writ large across my heart and I have spent a lifetime in the service of its people.

Through a long career trying to build a better country for my fellow Nigerians in offices both high and low I have always tried to place my country before myself.

While some who have occupied those same positions have grown mysteriously rich, I still live on my army pension. I own no foreign bank accounts, I own no companies profiting from government contracts.

Why then do I seek office, if not for myself? While others might prefer to stay at home watching their grandchildren grow and live the battle to others I still see injustices that need to be righted and I still dream of a New Nigeria.

I am what you see before you – a simple man who believes in serving both God and his country. A man who is impatient for change, who loves Nigeria and seeks to serve it once again.

When I last led this nation I launched a War against Indiscipline – today, I pledge a Battle for Hope.

A battle against the dark forces of corruption and despair that have held our nation hostage to their greed for too long.

We simply cannot afford four more years of PDP’s corruption and the corrosive cynicism that it has bred.

The time for hope, the time for belief, is now.

You cannot trust the corrupt to end corruption.

You cannot trust the selfish and self interested to rule in the best interests of the people.

You cannot trust those who believe hope is a tool of government rather than a human right to plant the seed of belief.
Let’s be clear. This is not a time for continuity. Failure does not deserve continuity. Incompetence does not deserve continuity.
It deserves change; that is what the nation deserves and that is what we will bring.

Make no mistake – as is always the case for those who seek to bring change, it will not come easy.

And today I ask for your votes and support as I make these five pledges to the nation:

I will honestly govern Nigeria in accord with the constitution and rule of law.

I will bring all resources necessary to end poverty through ending corruption, promoting broadly-shared economic growth, investing in our country and creating jobs.

I will tolerate no religious, regional, ethnic or gender bias.
I will return Nigeria to a position of international respect through active and wise foreign policy.

I will select the best Nigerians for posts in my government.
I do not intend to rule Nigeria. I want to democratically govern it with your help. I seek a Nigeria where Christians and Muslims may practice their faiths in peace and security; a Nigeria that is just and where corruption no longer trespasses into our institutions and national behavior and a Nigeria where our diversity could be used for our national prosperity.

Nigeria is our home. Let us now turn it into the great nation we know it can and should be.

I thank you all.