By Nwafor Sunday

As the 2019 general elections draw closer, different political parties have embarked in a ferocious campaign that denigrates the integrity of others.

Buhari and Atiku

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had in his recent report accused the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, President Muhammadu Buhari and his family of having substantial shares with one of the leading telecommunication networks, Etisalat and Keystone bank.

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According to him, Buhari’s family share in Etisalat, has an estimated $2 billion (about N727 billion at 360 per dollar) of its estimated $20 billion global net worth.

Whereas, the one in Keystone Bank, totaled $1.916 billion (equivalent to N307.5billion). He equally accused Mr President’s family of purchasing about N3 billion worth of shares in the new Pakistani Islamic Bank.

However, gluing on the above claims, Atiku urged security and anti-corruption agencies to probe and unravel the hidden faces behind the new ownership structure of multi billion naira telecoms giant, Etisalat Nigeria, as well as Keystone Bank.

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In view of the above therefore, the Director of Strategic Communications to President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organization, Festus Keyamo, SAN, replied Atiku in a statement titled, ETISALAT AND KEYSTONE BANK SHARES: PUBLIC ALERT ON PLANS BY PDP AND ATIKU TEAM TO RELEASE A SERIES OF WILD, UNSUBSTANTIATED ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT, noting that the sole purpose of PDP and Atiku was to dent the image of the President and his Vice.

He equally made mockery of Atiku who wants to ‘get Nigeria working again’, saying that he has always refused to pay his taxes AS AT WHEN DUE.

Read the full statement below:

With the latest refrain of the PDP linking some phantom shares in Etisalat and Keystone bank to the ‘family’ of the President, we have it on good authority that the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and his party are set to release a series of wild, unsubstantiated allegations against the President and Vice President including their friends and family members, in the next few weeks.

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With the latest revelation that the said shares are rather linked to relatives of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, it has became a case of the thief calling the farm owner the thief, as the Yorubas would say in a popular proverb. These impending wild allegations would naturally border on corrupt practices without any evidential basis.

The purpose is to attempt to dent the greatest forte of the President and Vice President going into 2019 elections, which is their personal integrity. The latest tactics of the main opposition is premised on the following grounds:

1. a) Since their stuttering campaigns started, they have felt the pulse of Nigerians and realized Nigerians have not forgotten their misdeeds of 16 years whilst in office.
2. b) They have decided to run a campaign of “we-are-all-corrupt” rather than defend their sordid records of merciless looting of the public purse, which has brought us to where we are today.
3. c) The aim is to push Nigerians to equate an Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with President Muhammadu Buhari on matters of corruption. They want to deceive Nigerians to think that the 2019 elections is really a choice between two “corrupt” persons
4. d) By repeating the lies a million times, they aim to get Nigerians to begin to give some serious thought to the lies. This is how the “Jubrin from Sudan” story started, before even some well-exposed and educated Nigerians were nearly converted on that issue.
5. e) Their latest desperate diversionary tactics is because even the most uneducated Nigerian has now understood that all the issues upon which the main opposition is campaigning are self-indicting issues, especially on the Economy and Security.

The foundation for the challenges in these sectors, are firmly rooted in their 16 years of disastrous governance. President Buhari has just started a re-building process.

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Nigerians should therefore brace up for six weeks of despicable lies from the pit of hell against the President and Vice President, to try to suggest to Nigerians that the President and his deputy are part of the league of looters to which they belong.

But Nigerians should understand that the choices before them have never been this clear: It is between a fugitive from the law in America and a President who has never been accused of stealing anything in his entire life and is respected both locally and internationally; It is between a man who claims he wants to ‘get Nigeria working again’ yet has always refused to pay his taxes AS AT WHEN DUE and a man who has NEVER cheated the Nigerian State. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has since kept an ominous silence over this damaging allegation of irresponsible and deliberate tax evasion that is now before a court of law.

Whilst the President and Vice President are prepared and willing to answer any genuine inquiry raised about their stewardship, Nigerians should always ask the critical questions as to “where”, “when”, “how”, names, dates, addresses, etc in respect of any allegation raised by the opposition before giving any credence to it.

This is because as the Atiku Campaign continues to fall apart on a daily basis, we may hear such desperate allegation from them that President Buhari has sold the buildings in Aso Rock to the Israelis or Americans!!!

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Nigerians should tell Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that it is too late in the day to impugn the integrity of Mr. President, or to “package” himself before Nigerians as a honest man. Nigerians only need to read the book by his former boss, ex President, Olusegun Obasanjo titled, “MY WATCH”.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must bear the cross and tar of corruption alone (as pronounced by the Congress in America and his former boss). He should not drag President Muhammadu Buhari into that room of moral debauchery with him.