The Director-General of Buhari Campaign Organisation, Governor Rotimi Amaechi has said Nigeria urgently needs a strong-willed leader like General Muhammadu Buhari to contain terrorism and corruption in the country.
Amaechi who stated this at an interactive session with journalists in Lagos said when Chadian rebels invaded Borno State in the past, it was Buhari that chased them away, saying it takes a strong leader to achieve such security feat.
He said, “How many Nigerians remember that Buhari is a strong leader? You need a strong leader to chase away Boko Haram or Boko Haram will chase us away. There are reports that 32 persons have been killed in Bauchi and Gombe, so you need a Buhari to actually fight the insurgents.
“The attitude of the federal government that it is a northern business is bad. Let them go there. It may not be what they intend but that is the way people read it. Whether people say it or not, you will see clearly that the federal government has not done well enough in the area of insurgency.
“It is not because we have a bad military. Our soldiers are well trained. It is because they are not well funded. Between the period that the money gets to the military and the period it is released, some amounts of money disappear.
“So, we have to deal with the issue of corruption and that is where the military is having problem. Because if they are not properly equipped, they cannot fight insurgency.
“You want to kill 50 military officers who are saying please equip us properly; we can’t go to the battle front without the right weapon; now you are sending a soldier to fight a man with RPG and you gave him old AK47 that cannot even shoot. You are risking his life. They have a right to protest that. You don’t kill them for that?”
Amaechi assured that a Buhari-led government if elected by Nigerians will deal with the issue of insurgency.
He pointed out that the country may be broke now because of two factors, saying, “the diversion of funds in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It has affected Nigerians including me”.
“The price of goods are rising because the price of dollar has risen. Inflation is on the rise. The president can’t deny that. The way to deal with that is to fight corruption. Once you fight corruption, you save money, that money you saved from corruption will be put back in the economy and that would create employment.
“We will deal with power because if you do not deal with power, you certainly cant deal with unemployment. Industrialisation, the essential factor, from elementary economics is power.”
Amaechi said those making the allegations that he is the one funding All Progressive Congress (APC) activities are enemies of democracy.
He added that: “Anybody who said we spent money should come out with evidence. We have maintained that consistently that Nigerians would fund us and that is why we have launched in our campaign meeting a fund-raiser and we will ensure that we will convince.”
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