No apologies, Nigeria will be on fire if APC is rigged out –Moghalu

The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Auditor, George
Moghalu, has at various times occupied top positions like the
National Secretary and the vice chairman of the now merged
ANPP.
He, from experience, has become a political force in the
opposition camp and speaking to Abuja Metro recently, he
delved into issues, concerning the coming elections, warning
of an impending doom should there be any attempt to rig out
APC.
He said it would not be out of place for the Southeast to
produce the next Senate President should Gen. Buhari emerge
President of Nigeria after the 2015 presidential election.
He also revealed APC’s antidote to the over N21 billion
campaign war-chest of the PDP, noting that his party had
enough campaign fund from the ordinary Nigerians on the
streets, who will willingly support the Buhari/Osibanjo
presidency with N1000 .
INEC readiness
We are very ready. I want to comfortably and confidently say
that APC is very ready for the general election. From the
outcome of our primaries that produced the candidates, we
didn’t have much issues.
However, we are not losing sight of the fact that we are
dealing with people’s ambition and as such should not expect
it to be totally smooth. It was a dynamic situation but in all
these, so long as we were seen to be fair and credible in the
conduct of the primaries, it is easier to get the loser and
winner to understand the circumstance.
This is exactly what we are doing – making explanations
where necessary, but following strictly the guideline we put in
place before the primaries. I can conveniently tell you that we
don’t have many problems.
Buhari, a big threat
It is wrong to compare oranges and apples because Gen
Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan are two
different persons. We are bringing a man whose selling point
is credibility, integrity and if there is anything Nigeria needs
now, it is such firm character with quality as his watchword.
Buhari is very experienced and confirmed even by his enemies
to be corruption free. It is wrong to say that his age will
count against him because we are not talking about
bricklaying at Aso Rock or work in a quarry site. We are
talking about intelligence, mental and physical capacity of a
retired soldier.
As far as I am concerned, age is not an issue because Buhari
is only 72 years. We have also complemented him with a vice
president candidate who is under 60 years.
We were cautious and took our time in choosing his running
mate because we want to follow the democratic process. We
are not like others that just wake up and make an
announcement. We embarked on wide consultations, involved
everybody, made everybody accept and ensure that
everybody’s interest is taken into account.
It is ridiculous to hear the argument that Oshibanjo, a
professor of law, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), an author
of many books on jurisprudence, a former attorney-General of
a state, who turned around the justice system in Lagos State
lacks the political clout to be the vice president. I wonder
what other credentials he should have for us to accord him
the respect he deserves.
Why not Chibuike Amechi
Yes, I agree with you that Governor Chibuike Amaechi
credentials made him a super candidate for the position, but
we must also agree that Prof. Osinbajo is equally a man with
intimidating credentials. There is no doubt they are both
qualified for the position just like other candidates in the
South-South, South East and South West.
Governor Oshiomole and our national chairman are both
qualified to be the vice president. The pendulum equally
swung towards South East with names like Dr Ogbonnaya
Onu, Rochas Okorocha, Senator Chris Ngige and don’t also
forget that I am qualified to occupy that position just like
Senator Osita Izunazor.
We have to look at the political calculations and resolved that
our fortunes will be better zoning the position to the South
West. Osinbajo emerged after wide consultations through a
democratic process.
PDP N21b campaigns fund
It is good for Nigerians to now make objective assessment. If
PDP could raise that money, they could have channelled it to
fix many of the challenging infrastructure problems. Our prayer
is that they should bring out the money so that it could
probably better the economy so that Nigerians can have some
money in their pockets.
We encourage people to collect the money from PDP but
should not sell their conscience. Our only fear is that it is
monetising the polity. For your information, we don’t need to
match the financial muscle of the PDP to win the election
because it is about the people.
We are going to use the people to match them. They can raise
all the money for campaign after all they are controlling the
national resources. Let me tell you that the ordinary person on
the streets of Nigeria fund APC political campaign. By the
time millions of Nigerians contribute N1000 to APC campaign,
we will have over N1 billion. I want to tell you that many
Nigerians are willing because they desire change.
Nigerians clamouring for change have invested in the Buhari/
Osinbajo ticket and I want assure you that you will soon see
people’s reaction. We have been weighing comments by
Nigerians, we have been consulting widely and we know the
responses we getting.
The response Nigerians give to the ticket still surprises
doubters. The money required for the election will certainly
come out. People are willing to invest because it is our
collective project. We are not going to monetise the polity.
Odds against Buhari
I don’t think anything will work against Buhari. I think his
emergence came at the right time because this is the time
Nigerians need him to change things. He will introduce a new
vista and take Nigeria to the next level instead of the situation
we are facing now where Nigeria is collapsing in our hands.
Challenges of PVC
We share the same worry with other Nigerians and we have
been calling on INEC to ensure that people get their PVCs. On
our part, we have started educating the people. As party
policy, we send people to encourage people to go for their
PVCs. We cannot fight INEC but we want to make them
understand that it is their responsibility to ensure maximum
participation by issuing the PVCs to people as the only way
they can vote. We challenge INEC to do more in living up to
its response.
The challenge of providing conducive environment rests on
INEC and it cannot afford to disenfranchise anybody, destroy
the morality process or seen to be partisan.
APC dead in Anambra
I don’t think so and it is a wrong assumption because a party
with a sitting senator cannot be dead. A party where
candidates are clamouring to buy nomination forms to contest
for all the positions cannot be dead. The chances of the party
winning some positions are very great.
Let me emphasis that Nigerians want change now because
they want to try another since there was no improvement in
the 16-year old business. Anambra is part of Nigeria that
desires change. Let me say equivocally that APC is going to
do well in the South East and I we will prove that after the
election. We are going to do extremely well because we have a
workable manifesto.
Okorocha and governorship ticket
Those faulting it were doing so because of lack of information.
He is a performing governor who desired to be the president of
Nigeria and subjected himself to the democratic protocols by
running for the primaries.
He made a sacrifice for the South East by running for the
presidency because we wanted it established that we don’t
just have a stake but also major stakeholders in APC. He
contested in full steam with our full support, endorsement and
encouragement of the South East.
While it was going on, the time for Imo governorship primaries
came up, somebody contested, returned but later changed his
mind on running again which automatically created a vacuum
and we impressed on Governor Okorocha to go back and pick
the ticket.
South East fate in APC govt
There is a lot to compensate the South East because it is not
about the presidency and his deputy. The senate president
and speaker of the House of Representatives must come from
somewhere apart from the ministers and chief of staff. In the
spirit of equity in federal character, it will not be out of place
to zone the senate president to the South East. There is
nothing wrong with our getting that position or even the
Speaker.
Fears for the election
My biggest fear is the ability of INEC and the security
agencies to be honest with themselves and manage the
election the way it should be. They must live up to their
responsibilities. They must see Nigeria beyond their own
personal interest. They should not do anything with the
intention to muddle up the process because Nigerians are
better informed now.
The only way they can avoid the hostile reactions of the
people is by doing things right. My prayer is for INEC to avoid
any problem by playing according to the rules and create a
level playing field for credible, free and fair elections. The
security agencies should not see themselves as greater than
anybody.
Let me warn that the party has no apology over our stand
that Nigeria will be on fire if APC loses in an undemocratic
election. APC will be happy to lose in a free, fair and credible
election process but we have also warned that we will resist
any attempt to rig the election and we have no apologies for
saying so.
Let the will of Nigerians be allowed to stand. If Nigerians say
they don’t want APC, so be it but if they want APC, allow
their decision to stand. We have common objective to give
Nigerians alternative government.
A two-party state
There is actually nothing wrong about it because it is the
trend in every strong democracy in the world. They always end
up having two strong parties. However, it does not mean that
there are only two parties in Nigeria. Others are there to
either contest or endorse candidates for any of the major
parties.
My appeal to Nigerians is that they should give us a chance
because if they have tried a particular product for 16 years
and it is not working, the only option is to try the alternative
and APC is that alternative.