I’m not a foreigner – Buhari’s wife

Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari

Hajia Aisha Buhari, wife of Maj.-Gen Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, has said that she is not a foreigner as being speculated in some quarters.

She spoke through Mrs. Deborah Iliya, a chieftain of APC in Kaduna State who represented her at the public presentation of a book, “Wind of change: 72 leadership qualities of Buhari,” written by a civil rights activist and Executive Director of Gatekeepers Foundation, Mr. Blessing Agbomhere, on Friday.

“Let me use this opportunity to deliver a message because there may not be another opportunity to deliver it. We know what is going on in the country today. It has reached the stage that people are hunting for Buhari not to reach that day of election.

“They have also said that Aisha Buhari is not a Nigerian. Aisha said I should tell everyone that she is a Nigerian. Does it even matter if she is not a Nigerian? What has that got to do with what is happening in this country?” Iliya stated.

Iliya further quoted Buhari’s wife to have rooted for a woman president in Nigeria in the nearest future as part of the total change package.

She said, “Aisha said she is pleased because the author is a young man; this is an indication that our youths have always understood the problems of this country and they are really pulling us together to fight a common front and that is change.

“We need change in Nigeria. For the past six years, we have been suffering; I wish a woman has been President we wouldn’t have been in this mess. So women, she (Aisha) has asked that I should encourage you to come out and be part of nation building. We are powerful; we are strong and stronger than the men.

“Please support women and next time we will have a woman President in Nigeria.”

The APC deputy national publicity secretary, Mr. Timi Frank, said at the event that the call by the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), for the postponement of the 2015 elections signified the coming of another “June 12” and that the party and all Nigerians would resist the postponement of the February elections.

The June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by the late businessman, Chief Moshood Abiola, was annulled by a former dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, thus plunging the country into years of political crisis.

Frank said, “That call for election postponement can lead to revolution. If Nigeria were to be a sane clime, this country would have been on fire because this is another June 12 annulment coming.

“These are part of the comments why people are stoning the President in the North. People in government don’t know how to speak and so they will say it is the opposition. When you anger the people, they will rise up against you. The voice of the people is the voice of God and that has come to stay.

“The National Security Adviser’s call for election postponement is a call against the wishes of Nigerians; that call is anti-people and a call for anarchy. That call for postponement is the personal view of the NSA. He’s not speaking for Nigerians. That call for postponement will not stand; we will resist it in any form.

“One man or a cabal cannot dictate for Nigerians. For us in APC, elections must hold on February 14 and if the Peoples Democratic Party is not prepared for election, let them back out of it. Nigerians are ready for the election and nothing on earth can change that date.”

Also, a member of Board of Trustees of APC and former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, said what Nigeria needed at the moment was change.

He said the call by Dasuki for the postponement of the 2015 elections was unrealistic.

He said, “The NSA is an individual, he expressed his opinion and he has even denied it.

“INEC said they are prepared; is NSA INEC? He is my friend and I know him very well. I think he was misquoted.

“Why should the elections be violent? People who want change will not fight, we in APC have been asking for change. We know we are more than PDP now and so anybody who is asking for postponement is the one who is not sure of winning the election.

“There will be change; there will be election and it will be non-violent, it will be free, fair and transparent. The results will be announced and the heavens won’t fall.”