Buhari promises credible polls in 2023

• Warns govt officials against usurping positions
• Frank insists N90b was diverted for 2019 ballot

President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to leave a legacy of credible elections in the country and to deploy law enforcement agencies to ensure that public officers do not utilise resources from office to exploit other citizens.

“I promise Nigerians to work very hard on free and fair election. All those that are going to succeed in the National Assembly and the presidency, they better work very hard because I will make sure, using the law enforcement agencies, that elections are free and fair, that nobody uses his office or his resources to force himself on his constituency.”

Buhari spoke in Abuja yesterday when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, led the State House Permanent Secretary, Jalal Arabi, presidential aides among others to present a birthday card to the president on his 77th birthday at the Presidential Villa. He said as a democrat, he had realised in a hard way that the process was slow in dealing with those who had pilfered the nation’s wealth.

“I think I have come to accept the realities of leadership in Nigeria; you can only try, it is a terrific country. No matter what you do, there are people on daily basis that look for your faults and go to the press, so you have to learn to live by that,” he said.

The president explained that he had every reason to feel good and thank God at 77, stressing that some were on crutches at that age, “but I am walking on my two feet.”On his birthday gift to Nigerians, the president said, “Patience and patriotism, that is what we see as rule. Nobody can have his own way, we better accept the truth that we are one Nigeria, we keep on building. God has blessed us with land, people and resources. We must have the patience to exploit them and leave something for our future generations.”

Meanwhile, the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has insisted that about N90 billion were diverted to prosecute the 2019 general election.

Frank, in a statement to The Guardian in Abuja, demanded an apology from the authorities of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for saying that he (Frank) was being used to fabricate lies against the revenue-generating agency. The agency and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have explanations to make to the world regarding the missing money, he insisted.

The Bayelsa State-born activist also lambasted the ruling party for describing the stolen money report as hogwash. He called on Nigerians, especially rights groups and courageous individuals, to defend the country’s democracy by urgently rescuing it from the current government for the sake of innocent Nigerians.