Buhari Will Surely Change Nigeria – Nda-Isaiah

The chairman of the LEADERSHIP Group and former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Sam Nda-Isaiah, has said that the president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, will certainly bring the change the country urgently desire.

Nda-Isaiah made this known yesterday in a statement titled, “Change Has Come To Nigeria” in which he congratulated Buhari for the feat of unseating an incumbent president.

He also extolled the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan for what he termed, “his early concession statement while the vote collation was still going on”.

Nda-Isaiah, who traced the journey of Buhari to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa from 2003 when he first contested the presidential election, averred that with his declaration as winner of the elections, corruption, which he said, has been at the foundation of the country’s woes has started reducing.

The statement reads in part, “If there are still people who doubt that God loves Nigeria, then the event of March 31, 2015 is their answer. What was thought to be impossible happened yesterday. The people’s votes counted. For the first time in the history of the Africa’s biggest country and its biggest economy, a sitting president was defeated. This is a defining moment in our country’s history.

“I congratulate Buhari for this feat. The political rescue mission that started with the 2003 presidential election through the 2007 and 2011 presidential elections and which cost the lives of people like Marshal Harry, Chuba Okadigbo and many others, has finally come to fruition. But I also sympathise with the president- elect because the majority of Nigerians want change in their lives like from the day after his swearing in as president. That would be expecting magic.

“But Buhari would surely change Nigeria. The very act of his declaration as president-elect yesterday meant that those who have been stealing the nation dry will start a tactical retreat. It’s fair to say that corruption, which is at the foundation of our nation’s problems started reducing yesterday with his election. The rest of the fight against corruption will be substantially won after his swearing in on May 29.

“As for the country’s embarrassing security challenges, I think it will be safe to take it for granted that Buhari will leave no stone unturned to return the country to the level it was when he was the nation’s leader in the mid 80s. This will even be more so as he has continually said during his campaigns that tackling the nation’s crippling unemployment crisis will be one of his priorities as president. And all these will work cumulatively to give the economy a boost.

“We should also be proud of President Goodluck Jonathan’s conduct yesterday. His early concession statement while the vote collation was still going on raised the standard of our civilisation by several notches. I think it also pre-empted the crisis that would have led to bloodshed. Our nation will ever remain grateful to him.

“I congratulate him on this statemanly gesture. I know the incoming president will treat him with the respect and dignity reserved for the exclusive club of the nation’s ex-heads of state. History will favourably remember him as the first sitting president to concede defeat in an election in which he was also a contestant. Finally to Prof Attahiru Jega, take a bow the applause is for you”.