‘Anyone but Jonathan, anyone but Buhari’ reason Nigeria will continue to be in a mess – Oby Ezekwesili

Editor’s note: 2019 presidential candidate, Oby Ezekwesili has spoken on the need for change from the old ways of doing things in Nigeria in order to achieve progress. She said in a speech on Monday that there was a need for Nigerians to look beyond President Buhari and Atiku Abubakar to take the country forward. Read her full statement below;

President Muhammadu Buhari has now shown neither the capacity nor the aptitude for the highest office in the land.

Do you remember? The chant all across the country was ‘Anyone But Jonathan’. Sadly, that is how we ended up with this reprobate government.

This time it is: ‘Anyone But Buhari’. And by that they mean that we should reinstate the failed PDP and its candidate, former vice president Atiku Abubakar because they think Atiku is the only person that can defeat Buhari in 2019.

And in 2023, when Atiku and the PDP inevitably fail again, because a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, we will hear new chants of ‘Anyone But Atiku’.

2019 cannot be ‘Anyone But Buhari’. Our country is not a recycling plant for uninspiring old men with their old ideas and old dubious characters. We deserve better than their aggressive mediocrity.

And that is why I am running for president – to lead a people’s movement that will permanently terminate bad leadership, retire these incompetents and fight for every Nigerian.

For those of you considering the PDP as an alternative, I really want to ask you: what is the thing that you see about them that is any different from the APC. Really? These people are the same: Siamese Twins of Failure.

Fellow Nigerians, here is the truth of the matter: the #APCPDP is not two parties. The #APCPDP is one single party fielding one single candidate, and that candidate’s name is #BuTiku.

Buhari and Atiku are conjoined from head to toe as #BuTiku. There is no lesser evil in #BuTiku. #BuTiku are members of the same party.

Attempting to choose between these two is like asking one to choose between death by poison or death by gunshot. God forbid.

We cannot reject one oppressor and hand over to another oppressor. We do not love bondage. We do not enjoy suffering. God in heaven forbid.

I just laugh when I hear some people say our citizens movement will split opposition votes. But the PDP is not in opposition to the APC. The candidate of the PDP has over the past 14 years gone from PDP to AC, AC to PDP, PDP to APC and now back to PDP.

These people are brothers and sisters of iniquity and impoverishment, merchants of failure and disappointment.

For these terrible Nigerian politicians, corruption is all fun and games. These people have no desire but for more power, power, power, power. They stay up at night conspiring to steal and pillage, to loot and destroy.

Oh, my brothers and sisters, I served in that government with one of the candidates who is running under #APCPDP in this election. Kai! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Six and a half years after, I had fought the fight that had to be fought from within, and then I left government knowing for sure that if this political order is not changed, the work of good governance that we do within government will never last.

I decided not to re-enter government, rebuffing every request made since, and instead made a decision to dedicate my life to activating citizens to push these blood-sucking political class out of office.

I returned from the World Bank five years later to do just that, and the PDP was still at it! Same incentives, same behavior. The political class was completely unchanged – and had in fact become completely worse.

For goodness sake, what has fundamentally changed about that PDP we have always known? What lessons did the party really learn after its defeat in 2015?

Is this not the same PDP that looted the monies meant to equip our military, so that our soldiers had to run away at the sight of Boko Haram, because they had no weapons?

The same PDP that spent precious days denying that our Chibok girls were kidnapped and so allowed the terrorists get away?

Is this not the same PDP that conducted a recruitment exercise for the Immigration Service that killed scores of our young people and yet nobody was sacked or punished? Haba. How can we forget so easily!

So the question is: Apart from forgetfulness, why are some Nigerians suddenly considering the PDP yet again?

I have heard some people say it is because the PDP candidate has run successful businesses and therefore will be good for the economy at a time like this.

That response just makes me shake my head in wonderment: Is it the same person we know, or are we speaking of another?

Perhaps you never read a 2005 email from the president of Atiku’s university which was obtained by US investigators.

Let me quote a small portion: “…The flow of revenue to the university will slow dramatically if Atiku’s political fortunes continue to wane… Construction delays on campus have also raised fears that the prospects for the university are linked to Atiku’s political success.”

Did you just hear what that email said? That the success of that man’s private business is dependent on our commonwealth?

A special report by a US Senate Committee on Foreign Corruption concluded that “over an eight-year period from 2000 to 2008, Atiku and his wife, Jennifer Douglas were able to bring over $40 million in suspect funds into the United States…”

And these are the people you want to put in charge of the national treasury? In charge of the money for your children’s education? Of the resources for our country’s hospitals? Of the budget for our depleted army and our impoverished police force?

If we dive into all the filthy issues involving the PDP candidate – from PTDF saga to $2.8 million Siemens bribery scandal – we may spend the entire day here today and I simply do not have that time. So let us talk about the present administration, the evil twin.

What is the primary legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari? It is the destruction of our nation’s wealth, presiding over the worst economic recession Nigeria has seen in decades.

Even now that the economy has come out of recession, the growth is as sluggish as President @Buhari’s government. 4 out of every 10 adults today are either unemployed or underemployed, and Nigeria is now the Poverty Capital of the World.

President Buhari declared after his victory that he “belongs to everybody and he belongs to nobody.” It sounded like sweet music at the time, but it was a big scam.

There is no shadow of doubt: President Buhari is the most parochial, most nepotistic and most partisan president that Nigeria has ever seen.

This president talks about fighting grand corruption. Please, please, give me a break! Can corruption fight corruption? Does he think we cannot see?

If we dive into all the other issues involving the APC candidate – from the Air Nigeria nonsense to claiming in the morning that Abacha was not a thief, and then going in the night to beg for repatriation of Abacha’s loot – we may spend the entire day.

I shudder to imagine the amount of corruption that will be uncovered about President @MBuhari and his government when they are kicked out by Nigerians next year.

I do not intend to dwell any further on these symbols of the past, but it is important that I define what #BuTiku actually represents so that citizens can easily identify and reject it no matter the packaging.

It is important to let you know exactly what you are choosing on behalf of us and our children when you choose these icons of failure, diappointment and national poverty.

We must not pretend that we do not know what the stakes are. We know. You know.

When your children ask you in a few decades what choice you made when faced between corruption and incompetence on one hand, and the @ACPNHOPEcandidate, Obiageli Ezekwesili on the other, what answer will you therefore give to them?

That you chose corruption or incompetence over character, competence, and capacity?

I decided to join this race because I wanted you, and me, to have no excuse.

We have in this race a candidate who has excelled in Corporate Nigeria, excelled in national government, excelled in private enterprise, excelled in international development, and then dedicated her life to fighting for every Nigerian from Chibok to Jos, from Abia to Ikot lkpene.

I am one of the very small tribe of Nigerians who have served in government but who have no allegation of corruption against them. I don’t mean court case o. I mean allegation. Zero. None. Not one.

I have been fighting for this country every day of my life for the past 30 years – from being attacked on the streets of Lagos fighting for the June 12 mandate to taking up this govt’s challenge of visiting Sambisa Forest personally to fight for our still missing #ChibokGirls.