The United Progressive Party, UPP has officially endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari for re election in 2019.
The party made its position known at a press conference held in Abuja.
National Chairman of the party, Chekwas Okorie in his speech outlined several reasons why his party adopted the President for re election.
The party had last Friday announced its adoption of the President after meeting Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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“We wish to state at the onset that our great party, the United Progressive Party (UPP) received a number of invitations for the purpose of forming a Coalition for the 2019 Presidential Election. Delegations of our Party honoured virtually all the invitations and submitted their reports to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Party.
“On Friday 17th August 2018 the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party met and approved that the Party shall not field a Presidential Candidate for the 2019 Presidential Election among many other far-reaching resolutions including the domestication of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Act. Having considered the reports of the delegations that represented the Party in the various Alliance/Coalition meetings, NEC mandated the NWC to continue with exploring the best Coalition option for our Party and in the overall interest of majority of the Nigerian people.
“After a painstaking evaluation of all the options and in consideration of the sincerity, uprightness and credibility of President Muhammadu Buhari which he has brought to bear in his approach to governance for the past 3½ years, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Party acting on behalf of the National Executive Committee (NEC), after extensive consultations with all stakeholders in the Party wish to announce to the Nigerian Public that President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) has been endorsed and adopted as our Presidential Candidate for the 2019 Presidential Election.
“Our resolution to adopt President Muhammadu Buhari as our candidate has been made easy for us by the leading Opposition Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who elected former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as their Presidential Candidate for the 2019 Presidential Election.
There is no discerning Nigerian or patriotic and rational Political Party that will have an objective assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that will not come to a logical conclusion that President Muhammadu Buhari towers head and shoulder above Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in integrity and in all other considerations.
“We wish to emphatically state at this juncture that the core values of our Party as expressly provided in our Party Manifesto and objective principles of our Constitution registered with INEC, especially in the areas of restructuring, self-determination of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, devolution of power, referendum, unconditional release of prisoners of conscience, State Police, and Community policing etc, remain sacrosanct. We shall continue to explore the inclusion of these revolutionary agenda within the Coalition.
“However, our primary objective and target from now, going forward is to deploy our Ward, LG, State and National structures to aggressively campaign in a very robust, vibrant and civilized manner to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari’s Victory in the 2019 Presidential Election will be beyond any iota of doubt. We shall do whatever that is possible to ensure that the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 shall assume the status of a national consensus.
“As Nigerian citizens we feel the difficult economic times that the nation is facing. We are also well aware of the enormous challenges of having to rescue Nigeria from imminent collapse as a result of the mindless and unconscionable looting of our common patrimony and treasury by the PDP administration consistently for over 16 years that the party held sway at the Federal Government level as well as in majority of the States of the Federation including the outright control of a criminally compliant and conniving National Assembly.
“As we hit the campaign train we shall from time to time share with Nigerians the many sound and logical reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari shall be returned to complete his Second term in Office and why it will be a tragedy of a monumental proportion to return the years of profligacy, unbridled corruption, scandalous leakages and highly compromised Judiciary, to power.
“We are enthused by the several gains made by the single-minded implementation of the Single Treasury Account (TSA), and Bank Verification Number (BVN) Policies and unprecedented tax revenue regime. The freehand the EFCC has been allowed to carry out its statutory functions as well as the highly innovative Whistleblowing Policy have combined to put the fear of God in Public Officeholders and those in the Private Sector who before now elevated corruption in all its ramifications to a national culture. Nothing can be more patriotic than the fact that the ongoing infrastructural projects in Nigeria that were at various levels of abandonment have been revived and are now at various stages of completion within a period of 3½ years. It is commendable that the Buhari administration allowed the contractors who were beneficiaries of the PDP patronages to continue with the projects and injected fresh capitals to ensure their completion.
“We have witnessed the positive attention being paid to Nigeria by practically all World Economic Powers as well as the hand of friendship extended by them to Nigeria in the areas of inflow of foreign investment and strategic support in addressing security challenges in our country.
“Although the very desirable rotation of power in Nigeria has not been provided for in the Nigerian Constitution but a noticeable convention of rotation of power between the North and South of Nigeria has been operative for a while.
Since 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule, this pattern of rotation has assumed the status of a convention rather than the rule. The expectation of shift of power from the South to the North and North to the South has some soothing effect on the perennial agitation for power shift, especially during each general election. In this regard, the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari to complete his Second term in Office shall pave the way for power to shift to the South in 2023.
“It is therefore our position and for the sake of national stability, cohesion and unity, that four more years of President Muhammadu Buhari is far more reassuring and beneficial to most Nigerians whether from the North or the South than a possible eight years of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar government which will also foist on Nigerians the sad memories of the 16 years of nightmare Nigerians lived under the PDP government in Nigeria.
“Consequently, we urge all well-meaning Nigerians from all sections and Ethnic Nationalities to come out to massively vote for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Chief Dr. Chekwas Okorie
National Chairman, UPP
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