Speech By General Muhammadu Buhari, Gcfr, Chairman Of The Board Of Trustees Of The Congress For Progressive Change, Cpc, At The Party’s National Convention In Abuja, May 11, 2013

Protocols

With your permission, Mr Chairman, I would
like to begin by welcoming all the CPC
delegates to this historic occasion. And our
special welcome goes out to our friends and
colleagues from sister-parties, notably Chief
Bisi Akande, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Musa
Gwadabe, Dr. Yakubu Lame, Governors Raji
Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun, former
Governors Achike Udenwa, Segun Osoba and
Chris Ngige, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of the
ACN, Senator Ahmed Sani, Yariman Bakura,
of the ANPP, and Owelle Rochas Okorocha
of APGA.
2. But before I deliver my speech, I would
like all of us here and across the country to
reflect on the seriousness of the security
situation in the country today. Some areas
of the nation are virtual war zones in a
country supposedly at peace. Whole local
governments in some states in the North
East are no-go areas to representatives of
constituted authority. Marauders of every
description armed to the teeth with all
manner of sophisticated armaments roam
the national landscape with total and
murderous impunity. The patience of this
nation and the various communities within it
has been severely tried and stretched to its
limits. And there is no end in sight.
3. Anarchy is knocking on the door of many
sections of this country and the Federal
government has not demonstrated that it
has the good sense to understand what is
going on, or the competence to check it. The
nation is hopelessly adrift. But, if we are to
survive, this vicious circle of violence that
has engulfed this nation must be brought to
an end; and we implore the National
Assembly to take the lead in this quest for
peace. I am sure everybody in this gathering
will join me in expressing sympathy for, and
solidarity with, the good people of Borno,
Yobe, Kano, and now, Nasarawa and Benue
states on their suffering and travails.
4. Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests and
fellow delegates, we must explore every
opportunity to save our country. This is a
historic moment when several different
political parties have resolved to come
together to change Nigeria for the better and
stop the mindless drift that has been going
on for the last fourteen years. We must
understand and accept that we are here
gathered to make history or forever stand
accused and condemned by it. We must
seize this moment that calls for patriotism
and sacrifice—it is time to sacrifice
everything—time, resources, ambition and
ego—for the greater good. We should carry
this process through to a successful
conclusion, and leave our legacy and foot-
prints on the history of Nigeria.
5. Many political analysts have long stated
that the only way to stabilize the country is
for opposition parties to merge and oust the
ruling PDP. In 2010, during the run-up to
the elections of 2011, ACN and CPC
inaugurated committees to explore ways and
means of merging into a single political
party.
6. We have gone to the extent of developing
a flag, a logo, a name and have even
proceeded to discuss with the Independent
Electoral Commission, INEC, about the
modalities of consummating our plans; but
time proved too short, and we were not
about to give too many hostages to fortune.
7. So the present move is really a
continuation of the efforts begun in 2010;
and this time we have started early,
following the rules step by step. On its part,
the CPC has, within the last two months,
established the following committees with
appropriate terms of reference:
1. Merger Committee;
2. Convention Committee;
3. Membership and Registration Committee;
4. Contact and Mobilization Committee; and
5. Publicity Committee;
8. The objective of these committees is to
prepare CPC for the proposed merger; and
these committees have satisfactorily
concluded their assignments and their
proposals have been submitted to NEC and
to the Board of Trustees, and these are now
being presented to you, the National
Convention, the highest policy making body
of our party. Other parties have fast-tracked
their processes and some have even held
their conventions. So far, so good.
No doubt, all the parties joining to form APC
are coming in as equals; but, realistically,
we all know that some are more equal than
others. Nevertheless, every joining party will
bring its peculiar strengths to this union and
together we will, in every sense of the word,
be too strong for the ruling party to resist.
With this, we believe the time for real change
has finally come to Nigeria—and it must
change now before it become too late.
The government has failed in almost
everything; it has proved unable to secure
the nation’s internal environment: there is
insecurity everywhere. There is spiraling
lawlessness all over the country. There is
widespread and rising poverty and
unemployment across the length and
breadth of the country. There is a complete
and total decline in the quality of social
services and an irremediable dilapidation in
the nation’s socio-economic infrastructure
across board.
9. There is an unprecedented fall in the
nation’s standard of living and an
astronomical rise in the standard of dying.
In short, today, there is nothing going right;
and we have become a nation in which
nothing works as it should, that is, if it
works at all. When they said they have what
they call a Transformation Agenda, we
didn’t understand, but we now know better;
because, within the space of three years,
they have transformed the country into a
veritable wilderness, where everything that
should work, doesn’t; where everything that
can get broken, has.
10. They promised to give the nation
credible elections; they couldn’t deliver.
They promised to fight corruption, they
couldn’t deliver. They promised to stop the
insurgency, and they couldn’t deliver. This
nation is witness to the fact that whenever
we promised, we delivered. And today, I
promise you most solemnly that we shall
confront and eliminate corruption in the
electoral process. We shall confront and
eliminate corruption in the judicial process;
and we shall most assuredly confront and
eliminate it in the conduct of government
business.
11. All these evils derive and draw
inspiration from a government that is itself
immersed to its neck in a cesspool of
corruption; and is best characterized by its
own favourite catchphrases: whether it is
‘Do or die,’ or ‘We will rule forever,’ or ‘No
vacancy in Aso Rock,’ or they want to ‘fight
to finish,’ it is the same thing—something
that could never be uttered by true
democrats. Their behaviour, language and
body language are in complete and total
disregard for democratic norms and the
ordinary decencies of civilized conduct.
12. We intend to provide a government of
different quality and tone to the people of
Nigeria, one that will tackle the problem of
insecurity, solve the perennial issue of
incessant power failure, arrest the shameful
deterioration in the standard of education,
confront the decline in agricultural
production head-on, and stop the collapse
of commerce and industry.
13. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow CPC
members on behalf of the Board of Trustees
of our party, I commend the proposals
shortly to be put before you. The best way
to eliminate this government that has not
brought anything to Nigerians except
thievery of resources and violence is to
accept to merge our parties. And we only
elect to do this because that is what we
believe to be in the best interest of the
majority of the people of this country.
14. And I would like to end by once again
thanking our steadfast supporters—you, the
ordinary folks—who have been the
unbreakable backbone of this struggle, from
the time we started this journey in APP to
ANPP and then to CPC. You did not do it for
material gain; otherwise, you will have
turned your backs on us. No doubt, you
decided to stay the course as a mark of
respect for our stand, and possibly knowing
that we would never let you down. You
relied on our judgment to forge ahead
through the thicket of the country’s
corruption-laden politics. This we have tried
to do to the best of our ability, and will
continue to do so until the masses of this
country secure a fair deal from those who
lead them. What we desire is democracy and
freedom for all our people. And in this
struggle, we think we have done our bit.
15. At its formation, the CPC became the
greatest crowd-pulling party in the nation’s
political history; and within six months of its
registration, and in spite of all the rigging of
the poll and the snatching of its votes, it
was still able to get more than 12 million
votes in the 2011 presidential election. After
the merger, the sky will be the limit.
16. While thanking you again, I implore you
not to relent as we embark on yet another
move in the search for a better tomorrow for
our country, Nigeria. We are now in the final
stages of the move that will culminate in the
merger of our party—the CPC—with three
other parties. We join this effort
compromising none of our principles but
yielding to the belief that our diverse efforts,
applied in unison, will help arrest the rot
that has become our lot.
17. We go into this new arrangement still
loyal to you and committed to what you
stand for. We go into this arrangement
conscious of our responsibilities to you and
grateful for all the sacrifices you have been
making since the beginning of our journey.
We count on you, as we have always done,
to guide, support and defend our position.
We will strive to work hard to expand and
level the democratic playing field in
accordance with the dictates of the rule of
law. We declare that we are in this together
—and together we shall remain to the end.
18. We played by the rules and we accepted
to play alongside those who didn’t; because
we believed our participation was giving
millions hope that positive change will come
along the way. Now change has finally
come; and they cannot stop it. And we are
putting the current leadership of this nation
on notice that our people will no longer
tolerate its corruption or the rigging, vote
thievery and general impunity that have
become the norm and standard practice
during elections in this country.
19. We have resolved that henceforth our
votes must all be counted—and they must
all go on to count. And we declare that this
nation has now resolved, through its united
opposition, that it will never again tolerate
or allow to pass the mayhem the
government deliberately creates in order to
cover up its guilt, obscure the issues and
then blame the opposition in order to
deceive gullible folks. And we will no longer
be intimidated by anyone.
Thank you very much for your patience and
attention. May God bless us.