By Abdul Alli
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari who is also the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) come February 16 presidential election, has said the war his administration is fighting against corruption is a broad one and he is battle ready to sustain it emerge victorious in the forthcoming election.
Mr Buhari made the promise while addressing a crowd of APC supporters who thronged the Oruta Ngele Township Stadium in Abakaliki, Ebonyi on Wednesday for the APC presidential mega rally.
He said that his administration’s commitment to repositioning the country and sustaining the anti-graft campaign was irrevocable.
Mr Buhari said that fighting corruption was a difficult task, but that his administration would not relent in the struggle.
”We are fighting broad war against corruption and this system is a difficult process but we are doing our best by trying to reorganise the Nigeria Police Force and Judicial system.
”When we vote people into public office who are without houses and good cars, within two years they will own cars, build houses in Abuja, Europe and America.
”When we investigate them, we arrest them and take them to court and when we take them to court, we hope that they will be prosecuted.
“The important thing that I assure you is that I as a president today have never been in a position of abusing trust.
“As a governor in the defunct North-east state now made up of the six states, as a minister of petroleum for over three years and as a former Head of State, I was arrested, detained and investigated but they never found anything against me.
”So, we will stand against anything that hinders our development as a nation because God has given us people, God has given us resources.”
The president said his administration had achieved success in the implementation of the three key cardinal programmes it promised to pursue during the 2015 presidential campaign – the anti-graft war, insecurity and rebuilding of the economy.
He said that the military had successfully freed the local government areas previously occupied by the Boko Haram insurgents.
The president said that the nation’s economy has been repositioned through agriculture and agro-based businesses and added that the country was no longer importing rice as it used to.
”We asked the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank to give soft loans to our farmers and those who don’t have something doing and who do not feel too big to farm went to the farm.
”Today we have achieved food sufficiency and the money we have saved from rice and food importation we use to provide infrastructure.
”We are building roads, we are building rail lines and gateways for new rail way lines and we are committed to restoring the confidence of people in good governance,” he added.
The president who thanked the people of Ebonyi for the rousing welcome urged them to vote for him and other candidates of the APC in the forthcoming general elections.
Earlier, the Minister for Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, said Mr Buhari had performed well and deserved re-election.
Rotimi Amaechi, Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation; Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, accompanied the president to Ebonyi while Adams Oshiomhole, APC National Chairman presented the party’s governorship flag to Sonni Ogbuoji, Ebonyi APC governorship candidate.