Traders plan Dec. 6 one million-man march for Buhari

The Grassroots Mobilisers for Buhari (GMB) and the Abuja chapter of the Arewa Traders’ Association plans a one-million man march in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection on December 6.

GMB is a political association saddled with the task of ensuring electoral victory for the President in the February 2019 election.

National Chairperson of GMB Dr Fatima Goni said the agreement was reached at a meeting between the leaderships of the two associations in Abuja.

The Chairman Arewa Traders’ Association, Abuja chapter, Alhaji Adamu Hassan, said the association, with membership from 63 market areas in the FCT and its environs, voluntarily agreed to join GMB to ensure electoral victory for Buhari in 2019.

He said:  “Apart from organising the one million-march in support of Buhari/Osinbajo ticket on Dec. 6, we are also working towards mobilising about 23 million of our members across the country to vote for Buhari/Osinbajo in 2019.

“We will be doing all these in partnership with the GMB with our little resources because of our love for President Buhari and the achievements of his administration so far.’’

Goni, who is popularly referred to as Mama GMB, said the association would soon commence public procession in major streets across the country in support of the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket.

She said: “Our campaign strategies include polling to polling mobilisation of voters and continuing sustenance of public enlightenment through media support.

“Our strategies will also use structures across the federation to counter the negative narratives being propagated by retrogressive forces.

“We require your kind understanding and patriotic support which shall be adequately complemented by our personnel resources to achieve a dynamic result in the monitoring and countering of anti-government propaganda.

“This is the time for all who are deeply concerned about the prospects and challenges of our democratic growth and national progress to rise and be counted on the positive side of history where the Buhari administration has steadfastly striven to place our great country, Nigeria.’’

She commended the leadership and members of the association for being part of the forward-looking, pragmatic and progressive cause which the Buhari administration had continued to represent.

Goni pledged to forward all the challenges facing members of the association to relevant authorities with a view to addressing them.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the GMB, Alhaji Umar Farouk, said the association had intensified efforts to mobilise over 10 million of its members nationwide towards ensuring electoral victory for President Buhari in the presidential election.

Farouk said the political association was formed in 2014 to promote President Buhari’s political ambition and good governance.

Also yesterday, National Coordinator of Buhari Achievement Awareness Forum, one of the support group working for the second term bid of the President, Alhaji Bashir Bale, said the achievements and development stride of President Buhari would ensure his victory.

Alhaji Bale who spoke at the lunch of the Forum in Suleja said however that it was unfortunate that majority of those living at the grassroot were unaware of the vast development stride of the President hence the establishment of the forum.

He said the forum had so far, identified 5,000 viable people-oriented projects of the Buhari administration which it would be showcasing to the people during the tour, using pamphlets and other instruments.

He said the pamphlet had been printed in the country`s three major languages of Igbo, Yuruba and Hausa and in pidgin English for better understanding.

In Enugu, the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) launched Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM) to mobilise massive votes for Buhari in the South-East.

A communiqué after the BSO South-East Summit by Chief Stanley Ohajuruka and Godwin Onwusi, South-East Coordinator and Acting Secretary of BSO, said:  “Our study shows that the total membership of all the political parties APC, PDP, APGA, UPP et al is less than 30 per cent of the electorate.

“And that the turnout of registered voters in the previous elections has been very poor, which makes it imperative that we have to mobilize in order to achieve 2019 massive vote for President Buhari and 2023 Presidential Turn of Ndigbo.

“In this connection, we today launch the Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM), a non-partisan movement aimed at mobilising Ndigbo both at home and abroad.

“The ZBM in the best tradition of the great Zik, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, want to reopen the ancient North-East political alliance, which without the exclusion of any geopolitical zone earned Ndigbo indelible laurels in the 1st and 2nd Republics.

“BSO South East proclamation that 2023 is our turn to produce Nigeria president of Igbo extraction is based on equity, natural justice and good conscience.

“For it is our considered view that the rotation of president convention from Southern Belt to Northern Belt introduced by patriots in 1999; 4th Republic, when Nigeria returned to civil rule, is for equity, natural justice, and harmony of our dear country.

“It is based on equity, natural justice and good conscience that we remind ourselves that since 1999, the South East geopolitical zone is the only geopolitical zone in the Southern Belt which has not presided over Nigeria.

“And it is on record that despite the truism that His Excellencies, Dr Alex Ekwueme and Dr Ogbonnia Onu, were shoved aside in Jos and Kaduna presidential primaries, respectively. Ndigbo albeit voted overwhelmingly for the winner, ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the South West, who served for eight years’’.

It recalled that in 2010 and 2015, Ndigbo repeated the same voting pattern by voting overwhelmingly for ex-President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, adding that it was clear that Ndigbo supported their two Southern brothers, even when South West in 1999 refused to vote for Obasanjo, meaning that `Ndigbo has paid their dues’.

The communiqué stated further: “BSO South East in deep reflection asked ourselves, what option in a scenario where two Fulani-Muslim brothers – Buhari and Atiku – are front liners in the 2019 Presidential Election, who could the great Zik choose if he were alive?

“In answering this germane question, we said two major critical issues will readily come to Zik’s mind – one, whom between the two of them has the support of the North; two, what is their programmes?

“As a pragmatist, the great Zik would readily choose President Buhari who has uncommon cult followership in the northern belt. This choice is based on the pragmatism that for us to achieve the Igbo presidency, we need Buhari’s supporters not only in the north but nationwide.

“On the second issue, the great Zik would be attracted by His Excellency Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restructure the country in six months in office; but as a pragmatist he will reason that it cannot be achieved by Fiat-Executive-Order.

“Whereas the Atiku restructuring mantra is appetizing, the truism is that it cannot be done by Fiat-Executive Order, but by the amendment of the rigid 1999 Constitution. All that glitters is not gold, the sage says’’.

The statement said that APC and by extension President Buhari was not against restructuring, otherwise they could not have set up the Malam El-Rufia Committee on Restructuring and its report receiving attention.

On the issue of four years, it said that Buhari’s remaining four years after 2019 is cast on constitutional stone, while Atiku’s is at best pledge.

“In summary, we call on Ndigbo both at home and abroad, to join the ZBM to actualise this noble objective of over 80 per cent massive vote for the performing president, President Muhammadu Buhari,’’ it said.

The summit was attended by BSO and APC chieftains including Chief Osita Okechukwu of Voice of Nigeria (VON); the Director-General, Nigerian Film Commission, Mr Chidia Maduekwe; National Commissioner of National Population Commission, Mr Ejike Eze, and National Chairman of BSO, Dr Abubakar Mahmood.

Others are Enugu State BSO Coordinator, Mr Anike Nwoga; Imo State BSO Coordinator, Adaobi Obi; Enugu State APC Publicity Secretary, Mrs Kate Offor, and the Senatorial Candidate of APC in Enugu East, Prince Lawrence Eze.

Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) South East Zone at the weekend launched the Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM), in a bid to guarantee victory for the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari.

The movement was launched at the South East Zonal Summit of BSO, held in Enugu to mobilise APC members and non partisan Ndigbo at home and Diaspora to vote for Buhari in 2019.

This move, BSO posited, would reinforce their bid for Nigeria president of Igbo extradition when it gets to the turn of Ndigbo in 2023.

The group explained that as a Pragmatist, the late Owelle of Onitsha, Nnamdi Azikiwe would readily have chosen President Muhammadu Buhari of APC who has uncommon cult followership in the northern belt, ahead of his Fulani kinsman, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

BSO noted that whereas the Atiku restructuring mantra sounds appetizing, restructuring cannot be done by Fiat-Executive Order, but by the cumbersome amendment process of the rigid 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In a communiqué released after the summit, signed by Stanley Ohajuruka, South-East Coordinator and Godwin Onwusi, Acting Secretary, the ZBM, the BSO proclaimed “is a non-partisan movement launched to go beyond the party lines in mobilising and scaling up votes for Buhari.”

According to the communiqué, BSO South East in order to actualise this noble objective adopted pragmatism as the key strategy, in the sense that the 2023 President turn of Ndigbo Project is a non-partisan bid.

The communiqué read in part: “Our study shows that the total membership of all the political parties APC, PDP, APGA, UPP et al is less than 30% of that of the electorate. And that the turnout of registered voters in the previous elections has been very poor, which makes it imperative that we have to mobilize in order to achieve 2023 President Turn Ndigbo.

“In this connection, we today launch the Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM), a non-partisan movement aimed at mobilising Ndigbo both at home and abroad. The ZBM in the best tradition of the great Zik, Owelle, Rt. Hon. Dr Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe want to reopen the ancient North-East political alliance, which without the exclusion of any geopolitical zone earned Ndigbo indelible laurels in the 1st and 2nd Republics.

“BSO South East proclamation that 2023 is our turn to produce Nigeria president of Igbo extraction is based on equity, natural justice and good conscience. For it is our considered view that the rotation of president convention from Southern Belt to Northern Belt introduced by patriots in 1999, 4th Republic, when Nigeria returned to civil rule, is for equity, natural justice, and harmony of our dear country.

“It is based on equity, natural justice and good conscience that we remind ourselves that since 1999, the South East geopolitical zone is the only geopolitical zone in the Southern Belt which has not presided over Nigeria.

“And it is on record that despite the truism that His Excellencies Dr Alex Ekwueme of blessed memory and Dr Ogbonnaya Onu were shoved aside in Jos and Kaduna presidential primaries respectively. Ndigbo albeit voted overwhelmingly for the winner, ex-president, Dr Olusegun Obasanjo of the South West, who served for eight years”.

BSO recalled that in 2010 and 2015, Ndigbo repeated the same voting pattern by voting overwhelmingly for ex-president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

The group made it clear that Ndigbo supported their two Southern brothers, even when South West in 1999 refused to vote for Obasanjo, meaning that Ndigbo had paid our dues.

The communiqué stated further: “BSO South East in deep reflection asked ourselves, what option in a scenario where two Fulani Muslim brothers – Buhari and Atiku are front liners in the 2019 Presidential Election, who could the great Zik choose if he were alive?

“In answering this germane question, we said two major critical issues will readily come to Zik’s mind – one whom between the two of them has the support of the North, two what is their programmes?

“As a Pragmatist the great Zik would readily choose President Muhammadu Buhari who has uncommon cult followership in the northern belt. This choice is based on the pragmatism that for us to achieve the Igbo presidency, we need Buhari’s supporters not only in the north but nationwide.

“On the second issue, the great Zik would be attracted by His Excellency Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restructure the country in six months in office; but as a pragmatist he will reason that it cannot be achieved by Fiat-Executive-Order.

“Whereas the Atiku restructuring mantra is appetizing, the truism is that it cannot be done by Fiat-Executive Order, but by the amendment of the rigid 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. All that glitters is not gold, the sage says,” it stated.