Top hierarchy of the opposition All Progressives Congress on Thursday told President Goodluck Jonathan that he would leave the Presidency in 2015.
The APC leaders, including a former head of state, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu; a former Interim Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande; and governors of the states where the party is in power, said most Nigerians were tired of President Goodluck Jonathan and would rather replace him with an APC president in 2015.
The opposition leaders spoke in Osogbo, Osun State, during the second-term inauguration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola performed by the Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Oyebola Ojo.
Aregbesola got his second term when he was declared winner of the August 9 governorship poll in the state.
They APC governors who spoke at the ceremony are, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Abdufatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) of Lagos State and Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Moses Adeyemo.
Tinubu, who spoke mostly in Yoruba language, said the Osun electorate resisted those he referred to as “forces of repression” during the August 9 election by choosing APC, adding that the party’s new philosophy was “commonsense revolution”.
He urged every Nigerian to vote out Jonathan next year. “The revolution we are talking about is the ability to use our voter card to send those people away because they have failed woefully.
“This revolution will take care of the elderly ones, create employment and to generate enough electricity and not to lie like they are telling lies from Abuja.
“The coming election in February, anybody who has charms must prepare very well. If you can use rings fortified with charms, do it; prepare waistbands and the likes. It is not going to be easy to defeat them.
“I am grateful to my mother who is in heaven. I was not trained to be a coward. We are ready for them.”
He berated the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government for attempting to rig the Osun State governorship poll, saying deployment of 30,000 armed policemen in the state for the poll was a shameless act.
Tinubu boasted that the APC would reclaim the mandate allegedly stolen by the PDP in Ekiti State.
Buhari, who is also a presidential aspirant of the APC, said that after the loss of the party in the Ekiti State governorship poll of June 21 and the removal of Governor Murtala Nyako in Adamawa State, the people of Osun State had raised the morale of the supporters of the party by re-electing Aregbesola.
Wife of former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, Titi Abubakar, who represented her husband, congratulated Aregbesola and solicited the support of Nigerians for the APC in 2015.
Aregbesola said the APC stood for progress and development while the PDP was a symbol of insecurity, poverty and retrogression.
He said, “Our party, the APC promises prosperity, national unity and integration, security of lives and property, job and wealth creation, rule of law and constitutionalism and deepening of democracy.
“All these have been showcased in all the states where our party holds sway in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti (until recently), Edo, Imo, Rivers, Kwara, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Borno and Yobe.
“This is what we stand for and this is why a greater number of Nigerians continue to accept us and identify with us. Our present travails therefore are temporary.
“The PDP on the other hand stands for poverty, misery and insecurity. They are prepared to sacrifice the entire country as long as their hold on power is intact. Come February next year, Nigerians are going to say enough is enough.
“We are going to beat them because they are beatable. The God that helped us to beat them in Osun will also beat them for us in the national election. Do not be afraid, do not despair. Victory is at hand.”
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