Zainab Yusuf Ogundana is the National Coordinator of Buhari Continuity Movement, BCM. In this interview with Adegbola Temitope, Ogundana gave impetus into why President Muhammadu Buhari should be reelected as the president of Nigeria.

Zainab Ogundana

What is BCM all about?

BCM means Buhari Continuity Movement. In scale, scope and significance. The 9th day of April 2018 marked the birth of Buhari Continuity Movement. A viable and formidable pro APC support group. founded by coalition of political activists, opinion leaders, student unionists, policy analysts, social commentators, public advocates and intellectual democrats whose membership captures interest across the 36 federating States of the Nation.

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And as politically conscious group with established structures across the political divisions and units within the country, we adopted to operate and carry out all our activities in line with the Progressive ideological base of APC and in furtherance of it’s policies and manifestoes.

So, what is your agenda and what motivated you to accept this appointment?

Actually, for so many years in time past, I  have been a working and convincing people anywhere I get to support Buhari. Even without being sent or paid to do so. Seeing things he did in the past and knowing fully well that he isn’t a corrupt leader. BCM has the sole mission to strategically mobilize, organize and galvanize over 10 million votes and support base for Buhari and APC across the 774 LGAs within the six geopolitical divide of the Nation from every nooks and cranny of Nigeria. I have been working tirelessly to make it happen by telling the people at the grassroot what Buhari has done in his tenure and what he is still going to do.

Primary objective

Our primary objective is to vigorously campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari, to provide an intellectually motivated partisan political platform that will interface with individuals, agencies and institutions in generating reliable data, records, visuals, reports, inventory and resolutions that will influence and command support for APC, we also plan to regularly publicize public interest articles and party interest write-ups that will promote, protect, project and propagate the superiority of the identity, image and achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari and to harness and harvest the instrument of plurality of public opinion and the mechanism of popularity of general perception in marketing to electorates, the programs and manifestoes of APC led government that is attracting dividends, upholding standards and implanting values within the polity. BCM wants to influence social dialogue and build consensus on the thrust and direction of the policies of APC government, as well as it’s contribution to National Development in view of the stipulated timeframe.

What has been the journey so far before and after your appointment in relation to community participation?

One of the major areas we are looking forward to is south-south and  southeast because the statistic of votes recorded last in the year 2015 election was not good enough that’s why we are focusing on those regions in order to make them see reasons why they need to vote rightly. During Muhammadu’s birthday, last year, I was there and we visited a rural hospital in Abuja in which some renovation were being done.

The grassroot campaigning has been done and still going on; some rallies were also done and we’ll still do another one in Abuja but the date has not been fixed.

Why do you think you can convince the electorate to vote President Buhari?

Buhari should be elected in 2019 because he has done so many things, for instance in agriculture, President Muhammadu Buhari has improved the system of agriculture in Nigeria in which a rice farmer can be producing 500 bags of local rice daily. Things have become more affordable, A paint of garri was sold at N600 then but now it’s being sold at N350. What I just see is that people don’t like change. Though many people are corrupt and push the masses into corruption there by making them feel because President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to make money enjoyed by everyone and not just for a specific group of people, then he has done nothing. Some masses have been blindfolded and brainwashed by giving them temporal gifts that when they are now elected, then all the resources and benefits would be denied them. Buhari is a man of integrity and he has been fighting against corruptions in the country. He wants to take this country to higher place.

Working for Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari has a lot of plans for Nigerians like the loan he is giving to the traders to trade with; without collecting any interest, he created jobs for so many graduates (n power …) which they are still enjoying till date. Why people think he has done nothing is stopping the general Nigeria cake from being allocated to some group of people who then sends a token out of the huge sum to the masses. But now, everyone is benefitting. More so, the road from Lagos to Ibadan and railway is being done. He is taking Nigeria economy to higher level and even Nigeria has been ranked higher than what it used to be in the world.

I have been working and convincing people that Buhari should be elected  again. Before I was appointed as Buhari Continuity Movement national Co-ordinator, I have known him since 1984  when he was head of state and how he fought against corruption then and I believe in him that he is a good leader to lead this country because he is not a corrupt person or cannot be corrupted.

Buhari has been giving loans to farmers to farm more so that there will be enough food in the country and that we will no longer depend on foreign food anymore. School children were not even considered but Buhari took up the challenge by giving them food because majority of them may not have eaten before leaving for school but he provided school feeding for them so that they will be able to concentrate more on their studies and be a good ambassador for this country in future.

What’s PMB’s plan for  Nigerians?

He has a lot to achieve if re-elected and also plans to take the nation to higher level which it’s expected to be. He has the passion to empower the masses, make funds available to trade with, create more jobs as well as encouraging youths to be independent and make the country a better place to be.

I urge Nigerians to go and collect their PVC and vote for the right man which has done so many things and will still do more.