I still vouch for President Buhari
I know General Buhari pretty well. Apart from family long standing relationship (from the sixties) between him, Mamman Daura and my late father, I was a member of his initial 2002/2003 team.
Indeed, I was an early volunteer and I used to drive to Kaduna to meetings in his personal office at my personal expense. Then I was resident in Calabar.
In that era, all supporters of General Buhari were puritans and were mainly patriotic volunteers who joined him for the integrity and Puritanism he projected and exuded! I can recall many people we worked with in those days, they include Prof Barth Nnaji, Wada Nas to name a few. These men were my colleagues on the Central Committee of the nascent TBO! This was long before Sule Hamma and Buba Galadima!
We raised money by ourselves for posters; we contributed money for logistics because we were ardent believers in the Buhari project! Indeed, I led the very first ever TBO outing to southern Nigeria. I led Dr Tilde and now Senator Ahmed and Yau Darazo to the Zonal APP meeting at Awka and that trip was at my expense. By the way, I also coordinated General Buhari’s first ever visit to the APP Abuja headquarters.
As I said earlier, I know the man and I still believe he has it in him to do good forthe nation! He was kindly, he was humble and he was ascetic!
As the project grew more and more people joined up or were invited in. And expectedly, not all the entrants were pure or clean. However, these impure elements should not be allowed to spoil and tarnish all those years of hardwork and hard earned reputation.
The Buhari who I rode in the same car with, the Buhari who i ate with both on his Kaduna home and his Abuja Guest Apartment, that Buhari is a decent and clean man. I remember once when I and late Dr Harry Marshal were at lunch in General’s Kaduna House. Dr Harry I think needed an item which was not then on the table, to our consternation and surprise, General Buhari left his seat at the head of the table to go get the item from the kitchen himself. That is the man Buhari!
But I am really upset about the daily scandals and faux pas that is daily oozing out of the villa. The General Buhari that I know who fought long and hard to get to presidency should move to stem the stench because in the final analysis, all his appointees act on his behalf! Nobody, no lover of Nigeria or follower of Buhari can tell you that he is happy with the current travails of both the man, the presidency and their running of affairs!
It is only when he fails to act despite the volume of evidence available that I and many others will have no choice but to say: “Mr President, you have disappointed and betrayed our hopes that YOU ARE THE MAN TO CHANGE NIGERIA!”
And then we will look for another! Till then, gentlemen, I say, HOLD YOUR
FIRE AND KEEP THE FAITH!
– Ray Ugba wrote in from Ogoja
