President Muhammadu Buhari has laughed off politicians who still live in the past thinking that with their money, they can wangle their way into power.

He said: “some of the people thought to be uneducated and unsophisticated are very educated and sophisticated during elections; for those who have money to give they say bring the money we will still do what we want to do.”

The President spoke today, Friday, when he received members of the Buhari Support Group Centre (BSGC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

President Buhari said that God’s divine intervention and the use of technology during the 2015 elections exposed the weakness of previous processes where a privileged few sat and allocated figures to constituencies during elections.

“They just sit and look at a constituency and they award the numbers, then they say anybody who disagrees should go to court; now, for somebody who is looking for the next meal where does he get money to pay Senior Advocates of Nigeria?

“Thank God for technology. With the PVC (Permanent Voter Card), you know where you registered and it can be shown whether you voted or not.”

Buhari, who advised Nigerians to get their voters card for the 2019 elections, and ensure that they vote to please their conscience with pride as citizens, gave reason why he made his intention to contest the 2019 Presidential elections known early.

President Buhari said that one of the reasons was to stop distraction to governance by those agitating for and against his second-term.

“I had to announce before the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our party about my intention to ask for the party’s nomination for next year’s election so that we can save a lot of time and cool tempers.

“A lot people were trying to make it a habit of being a nuisance to themselves and many Nigerians, so when I came out I said those who are serious let them come out.

“And I tried to make sure that the party is organized and consolidated so that we start from the bottom to the top, and that Nigerians will be involved in a way that each constituency will pick those that are going to represent them at various levels, whether as Local Government chairmen, in the State Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and finally the president.”

The President commended the BSGC for all the sacrifice and steadfastness in championing his candidacy.

“I thank you very much for the sacrifice you have been making. I am happy to use this opportunity to meet you and thank you for the sacrifices and steadfastness. I don’t think I can thank you enough because by identifying yourself as a group for all these years and getting nothing for it visibly I think its worthy of commendation.”

The Coordinator of the BSGC, Umaru Dembo, said: “through thick and thin, rain or sun shine, hot or cold we are here to assure Mr. President that since 2014 we have been working, expanding and helping to explain the new life that your government has ushered in for the good people of Nigeria.”

He said that the BSGC had initiated the documentation of the President’s achievements in a book authored by Dr. Sani Muktar Bichi and himself.

Dembo assured the President of a bottom-up process of mobilizing more supporters for the administration, while appreciating him for reversing the trend of impunity, corruption and lawlessness that reigned before 2015.

Dembo said that the BSGC is an umbrella organization encompassing “Women for Buhari and Osinbajo,” “A Kasaa Tsare,” “Northern Youth Assembly,” “Buhari Renewal mandate” and others in support of good governance in Nigeria.

National chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has described the former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as an expired old man who has embarked on the recruitment of rent-seeking politicians for the purpose of grabbing power for his third-term which Nigerians had rejected long ago.

Speaking to news men today, Friday, in Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, shortly after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Oshiomhole said: “…that old man is going round as an organizing secretary, recruiting people, looking for tired players to continue with his third term agenda which Nigerians have rejected.”

The APC boss, who was reacting to insinuation that the ruling party is being hit my massive defections of its top shots to other parties, said that by whatever form the coalition, led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) come in, “Nigerians have spoken and they are not about to return to the era where NNPC and Central Bank and security money is shared to people based on the philosophy of PDP -‘share the money.’ They won’t do that.”

He said that if there has been mass defection, it is the PDP that had suffered most.

“I think this is what you should ask the PDP. They are the ones who have suffered huge mass defection even of the so called founding fathers.

”In those good old days, people like Professor Jerry Gana will tell us that we are the founding fathers; people like president Obasanjo will tell you that I was the first president and all those stuff. All of these people are gone.”

Oshiomhole said that a party, like the PDP, whose founding fathers, including Professor Jerry Gana and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, can never upstage the ruling party.

“I think the media should get more engaged and scrutinize those of us who are political players, especially when we speak from both sides of our mouths, or we know are turning the truth upside down.

“Just few months back, you know that a good number of them after their convention; people like Professors  Oyediran and Jerry Gana, who are said to be founding fathers of the party left to form what is called the SDP. So, they broke out and when it dawn on them that even together we defeated them just four years ago, now further factionalized what can they do? They just want to capture power for the sake of power.

“And they said okay, even though we have already broken the house into pieces for the purpose of capturing power, let’s come together. Does it make sense? I mean in the morning you broke away from PDP to SDP, then to ADC and then in the evening, you say you are… let me put it more differently.

” As brothers and sisters belonging to the same family, we decided to fight and denounced our family, denounced our surname and everybody decides to adopt a name that suits him. Now we are confronting our opponent. We suddenly realize that we have just become pockets of mushrooms, you knowing having dropped our father’s surname and adopted different names; we now say how do we confront this massive opposition? Then we say okay, we can’t be brothers again because we have already denounced that, but can we now become a coalition of friends? Now what brothers cannot do, is it friends that will do it? Particularly, friends of all kinds of multiple feathers?”

The Peoples Democratic Party has threatened to boycott the 2019 general elections unless it gets assurance that what happened in Ekiti State governorship election would not be repeated.

National chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, who spoke in Abuja today, Thursday when he granted audience to joint delegation of International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute at the party’s national headquarters,  accused the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies of being partial during the conduct of the Ekiti governorship election.

He alleged that his party did not contest against the All Progressives Congress (APC) or any other political party in the state, but contested against the commission and security agencies.

“Our opinion is that INEC and security agents are directly involved in this manipulation. As a matter of fact, we did not contest against the APC; we contested against the security agencies and INEC. Nigerians and the international community are aware of this fact because of what happened in the state.”

‎He said that the party is consulting whether to participate in the 2019 general elections or not, “because you are participating against security agencies and INEC who have colluded to alter the figures even after you have voted. So, we are in a dilemma.”

He stressed that if nothing is done to restore the confidence of ordinary Nigerians and other political parties, it might be difficult to accept the result of 2019 general election, no matter what the outcome might be, noting that such may a recipe for crisis.

‎He alleged that Ekiti State was militarized before and during the election, adding that PDP leaders were harassed and arrested and detained in the state.

“Our members were harassed, arrested and detained overnight. All of these things were happening in the suburbs.

“In the city, it was like a roadshow and it was like nothing was happening; but it was at the local government that they carried out their activities and most people were scared and didn’t come out to vote.

“The second thing was that they came out with federal might, with money, with everything to entice the voters. Even at that, we won the election but it was manipulated.”