As he formally declares to run for presidency

By Wole Mosadomi

MINNA—FOUNDER of Leadership Newspapers, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, yesterday formally declared his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, with a promise to change the history of Nigeria for good, if elected.

The presidential hopeful who made the declaration in his Minna home town of Niger State said Nigeria under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, administration has been degraded to unimaginable levels.

He mentioned numerous issues like insecurity, epileptic power supply, water, corruption, robbery, kidnapping, lack of good education among others as part of the problems facing the nation which he is ready to solve if given the opportunity to lead the country next year.

DECLARATION: All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential aspirant, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah during his declaration to contest for the APC presidential ticket in next year’s election in Minna, yesterday.

According to him,”Nigerians from everywhere yearn for change because the country cannot continue on this path and that is why I want to be President. I have come to offer the change that will change Nigeria forever, I do not seek to be president simply because (President Goodluck) Jonathan is not a good president but want to be that president that will change the course of Nigeria’s history forever.”

He therefore called on all Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the 2015 general elections to vote for him as president and remove PDP leaderships across the country and witness rapid transformation in all spheres of life.

Why PDP, Jonathan must be voted out—Atiku, Akume

Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is also a presidential aspirant on the banner of the same party told the gathering that any aspirant in APC is better than president Jonathan and that any of the aspirants who eventually clinches the party’s ticket will be given full support by others.

“Any aspirant among us is better than Goodluck Jonathan and that is why we are united, no fighting or quarelling among us and we are going to give our support to who ever wins at the primaries,” he remarked.

Chairman of the occasion, Senator George Akume called on all Nigerians to unite to flush out the PDP from power at all levels next year.

“It is not that we don’t love the president but it is his ideas that are very bad which we must change. We are talking of the abandonment of the Chibok girls, problems of security, lack of power, fraud everywhere. This is why Nigerians should come together by rescuing the country from total collapse under PDP and vote in APC for a permanent change,” he declared.

Other speakers including Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State; former Ekiti Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Senator Aisha Alhassan eulogised Nda-Isaiah and urged Nigerians to show their love for APC by voting in the party’s candidates in the 2015 general elections for a better Nigeria.

Prominent members of the party at colourful ceremony included, Audu Ogbe; Woman leader of the Party (South-South), Rachel Akpabio; Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; Niger State governorship aspirant, Abubakar Sabi Bello; and Alhaji Oyinlomo Damola Mohammed who represented Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos State.

How and whereNigeria’s decline started—Nda-Isaiah

The presidential hopeful, who explained how he would tackle the Nigerian problems he itemised, began his speech by acknowledging the quality of presidential aspirants in the APC

“I am today declaring my candidacy for the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I would like to begin by paying tribute to the star-studded slate of presidential aspirants of our great party: General Muhammadu Buhari, my role model and political boss with whom I have been in the trenches for over a decade since he joined politics; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has lived a life of service; Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who has changed the face of Kano; and my friend, Rochas Okorocha, a true and proud Nigerian. Anyone of us who becomes President next year would be infinitely better than the one we currently have,” he said.

He decried President Jonathan’s alleged misgoverning of the country, saying that he has the capacity to lead better.

His words: “President Jonathan has been totally unable to perform the most basic responsibility of any leader, which is provision of security to the people of his country. Nigeria has been degraded to unimaginable levels. We are now the laughing stock of those countries we used to laugh at.

“Nigerians who are old enough know that this is not how it used to be. As a country, we are much better than this. The Nigeria we knew, even though far from being the ideal, was good enough to provide security and the basic necessities of everyday living. And we even had enough to cater for other African nations. That was when we were a regional superpower. But not any more. And all these happened when our revenues as a nation were far less than what we have today. That was when Nigeria fought a civil war without taking a loan; even the post-war reconstruction was carried out without a loan”, he noted.

On insecurity, the Pharmacist-turned politician pooh-poohed the Federal Government’s alleged poor handling of the Boko Haram insurgency.

His words: “To prosecute the war against insurgents, the Nigerian President has just taken a loan of $1billion, even though oil sold for around $100 per barrel for as long as anyone could remember and the Customs and Excise Department rakes in an average of N1trillion annually. It is difficult to know the exact point this downward slide started but the misfortune of this country obviously accelerated from the time the PDP came to power in 1999.

“Many of us have seen Nigeria from different eras. We have seen our country gradually decay into one in which people are now afraid to carry on their lives as ordinary citizens. They are afraid of sending their wards to boarding schools in parts of the country because their kids could be burnt alive in their dormitories; they are afraid to send their daughters to school because hundreds of them could be kidnapped at the same time and turned into sex slaves.

“And there are many more who are afraid to go to church or mosque because they could be bombed out of existence. Yes, terrorism is globally a contemporary phenomenon but in no other normal country on earth would terrorists strike in the same place every other day like Nigeria and no arrests are made. The North-East of the country may now be the base of insurgents but no part of this country is the safe place we would want to raise our children. Kidnappers, armed robbers and ritual killers all through the 36 states of the federation operate freely without any fear of any consequences.”

Massive corruption

On graft, he noted: “Corruption under the PDP government has reached extreme levels, to the extent that the Federal Government is no longer able to pay state governments and other government units their due allocations.”