BY CHRIS OCHAYI
A former Governor of Rivers State, Sir Celestine Omehia, yesterday criticised the presidential ambition of General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, advising them to bury their aspiration in the interest of the public.

Omehia, who said this while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, however, noted that both Buhari and Atiku have the constitutional right to aspire for any office in the land, but their consistently contesting for the presidency is blocking the interest of the public.

It would recalled that the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar yesterday (Wednesday) declared his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election under the platform of All Progressive Congress, APC.

Atiku AND Buhari

But Buhari, a former head of state and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is yet to openly declare his presidential ambition for the February 28, 2015 presidential poll.

Omehia urged Buhari and Atiku to believe in destiny, even as he called on them to sponsor younger candidates to the position, rather than having a perpetual aspiration.

According to him, “every human being who is of age has the right to aspire for any position in as much as you have met the constitutional requirement.

“They have consistently contested for the position and their continued aspiration is blocking the interest of the public. Why not now believe that there is a destiny and that is not your destiny to be president? You just give it up and God has a way of doing it for them.

“But besides that, there are other competent people you could also sponsor and support. You can’t say every person in your community is a duller and you are the only wise man.

“My position is that since they have been trying it and it is not working out, they should see it as providence,” Omehia said.

On the capability of any of the duo defeating President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election, Omehia said he had no fear about that.

“I don’t think either of them can win the president. The performance of Jonathan, looking at Nigerian rationale and the reasonableness in the minds of Nigerians today, you will see that many Nigerians are being objective and reasonable. Many Nigerians, who are of adult age, are seeing the achievements on ground put together by Jonathan in all aspects of life.

“If you look at agriculture, you look at power, you look at transport, aviation and every aspect of life, he has something to tell the world. He has something to tell Nigerians that these are the things I have done, these are the things I want to improve upon, these are the things that any other person has not done, and I have done them.

“Turn it the other way round. What will Atiku tell the world? That he has been a Custom officer or that he has been vice president which Jonathan has also done? He has not been a governor. Jonathan has been a governor. Jonathan has been a deputy governor, he has been vice president and he has been president. And of all these, there are records on ground of his achievements. No matter how small they may look at that time, more are on ground now than ever.

“What will Buhari tell the world? I don’t want to talk about him because there is nothing to talk about. There is nothing about the unity of Nigeria, there is nothing about the religion of Nigeria, there is nothing about the economic development and growth of Nigeria, there is nothing about the human resources development of Nigeria that you can ever point at to say that these are his achievements.

“So, what Jonathan will be saying is that if Nigerian agriculture has improved by 40 percent, I have achieved the 30 percent of it and I intend in the next four years to achieve another 30 percent of it, putting Nigeria in 60 percent on agricultural production in the world. That power generation was at a particular level when I came in and I have achieved this and I intend to achieve this more.

“He will also tell Nigerians what the Almajiri education was like, who neglected it. In fact, these two people cannot even talk of education in Nigeria because they have not done anything about Nigerian education, not to talk of the Almajiri education.

“They should not even talk of education in the North at all because they have been there and they did nothing about the Almajiris. And Jonathan has done a lot for the Almajiris, including his support for agriculture in the North. What have they done?” he queried.