Good morning, my friends. As we continue our relentless pace campaigning for # Change this week, let’s reflect on the past few weeks -GMB
I have become seriously disturbed by the volume of falsehood and desperation from the opposition campaign of the PDP.
I clearly underrated the panic and lack of integrity that leads people to tell barefaced lies, and must confess, it continues to confound me.
I have run for office before, but I have consistently done so without desperation or anger, because elections are not war.
Why should candidates tell so many frantic lies in order to win elections, if truly their purpose is to ‘transform’ the lives of our people?
It is a tragedy to see the ruling party focus on pettiness and lies; rumours of cancer, foreign treatment, and certificates they know exist.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Nigerians died in # Baga days ago. Our unemployment numbers are
rising.
The businesses of our enterprising youth are being killed by lack of access to finance and poor economic policies.
This campaign should be about those issues. It should be about today and the future; about securing Nigerian lives and Nigerian land.
The desperation is beyond my understanding.
# ThingsMustChange
What is this obsession with lies? What is this obsession with pettiness? What is this obsession with threats and attacks?
All of us, citizens and voters need to ask ourselves – why is our President so desperate?
How can the President of this country be talking about remembering phone numbers and coup speeches?
How can his campaign be talking about dead ex-leaders, jogging around the stadium and outright lies about my health?
How can a President who has led this country for six years be unable to run on his own record and his achievements? Where is his fabled calm, where is his reserve, where is his composure? Why is he so ruffled?
Why is he so frustrated and afraid?
We should be deeply worried that a President who called for calm during governorship elections has
now lost his cool in his own elections.
Our President and his allies must remember that he is not only a candidate for office; he is the President of Nigeria.
We do not have a disinformation or propaganda wing in our campaign. We have no need to waste time in driving petty attacks.
We have not spoken about the President’s family, his health, his religion, his ethnic group, or his phone number.
We are concerned only about his record – has he secured Nigeria? Has he fought corruption? Has he truly grown the economy so it can work?
Do our children find it easy to get jobs? Do our sisters and brothers find it easy to set up and sustain their businesses?
Can our president keep us safe when we travel to any part of this country? Is your life better today than it was six years ago?
We have only presented our record – how we fought insurgencies, how we stabilized the Naira, how we tackled corruption.
We have presented our vision and plans – through our manifesto (available on http://
www.thisisbuhari.com) and our town hall meetings.
We are lucky to have in this election two people who have led this country. I am proud to present our record of solutions and effectiveness.
Imagine the accelerated growth we can now achieve in a democracy –which the world has seen to be the most effective way of governing nations.
Let us focus on those issues, please. Elections are not war. February 14 is not about politicians. It is about our country.
I am appealing to you: the damage to this country is great. The level of unemployment and insecurity
is intolerable, worsened by corruption.
Therefore, I shall refuse to indulge the smear campaign. I refuse to allow them take away the focus from the issues that concern you.
We insist on a campaign of hope, change and the future. This election is about big, important issues.
We refuse to play it small.