Buhari mocks Atiku, says dollars were shared at PDP primaries

President Muhammadu Buhari has mocked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as it presidential candidate.

He stated that dollars were shared at the PDP national convention and opined that most Nigerian politicians were more materialistic in nature.

The president, who stated this at the closing of the 3-day Interfaith Conference on “Religious Harmony in Nigeria: Towards the 2019 General Elections’’, in Abuja on Saturday, said such politicians did not always mean what they said.

Buhari narrated how he was cheated (politically) during his previous attempts to occupy the presidential seat in 2003, 2007 and 2011 by those he described as members of his religious and ethnic groups.

The President rhetorically cited the 2015 APC presidential primary where dollars were disbursed to delegates to edge out of the race as well as one of the just concluded party primaries where dollars were also used by aspirants to secure presidential ticket.
“The question of religion and ethnicity is fraudulent. Some people are not sincere they don’t mean what they say.

“I’m telling you and some of you know during my primary (in 2015) my opponents said naira had finished and people were given dollars.
“Even in their late primaries recently dollars were being given, nobody takes naira.

“Really, it’s materialism that we will fight to make sure that we stabilize every level and do justice to our country.

“But, what I found out regrettably is that we refused to learn by other people’s experience and we are refusing to learn from our own mistakes,’’ he said.

In his keynote address, Archbishop Justin Welby the Archbishop of Canterbury, stressed that it was the responsibility of religious leaders to speak up and condemn all forms of violent activities during political campaign or elections.
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He said Nigeria must take up its leadership role in Africa by way of conducting free, fair and credible election in 2019 and beyond.