Friday 18 January 2013

Remarks by General Muhammadu Buhari At the Inauguration of the CPC Merger Committee


At the CPC National Secretariat, Utako
On Wednesday, January 16, 2013

I would like to welcome all of you to this very important gathering, and would like to begin by apologising to all of you for the short notice given. And for people like Owelle Oscar Udoji and others like him who have virtually been detained here and who have had to cancel engagements overseas in order to be with us here for this event, the apology is double.

After my full and sincere apology, I would like to congratulate you on your appointment. You are all selected and appointed to serve on this important Committee because of the trust and confidence the leadership of this party has in your ability, competence and integrity to work with sincerity in the best interest of not only the CPC but the people of Nigeria who have always voted – and will again vote - for change.

The issue before you now and as go into negotiations is fundamentally one - that you will negotiate the best deal for Nigeria. It is essentially a matter of give-and-take: there is nothing sacrosanct about any of the issues you will be called to thrash out; of course, there is a bottom line the outlines of which you have been given in the Committee's Terms of Reference. Please study these and let these be your guide as you sit to negotiate. Your task is national. Petty person interest should not stand in the way of a great opportunity to build and run a better Nigeria, which will happen once CPC and ACN come together.

But remember: we are not going into battle; we are going into a friendly game with our brothers who desire for this nation what we desire for it. You must remember to negotiate with respect, understanding and decorum as befits people who are ready and genuinely desirous of merging into one tomorrow. As we sadly know, the nation is once again at a crossroads, stumbling from one disaster to another, simply because its leaders lack unity of purpose; and, even if they sometimes look like coming together this has never been marshalled into a coherent, irresistible force by the opposition. But the opposition itself has not been able to get its act together because it is not united. In Nigeria today therefore, unity - unity of the people, unity of political parties, and unity of opposition - is no longer an option. It has become a national imperative.

And thankfully, everyone is finally coming round to accept the necessity for it. Right now, so strong is the belief in unity as seen in the merger of our two parties that the sentiments expressed on both sides sound as if the two parties may merge on their own even before their representatives reached the roundtable. The sentiment today is a merger between the ACN and CPC, not an alliance or an electoral understanding or anything of the sort. What Nigerians want, is merger and that is what you are going to negotiate and bring home to them.

And luckily, you already have something on the ground to work on, because much ground towards unity has already been covered in previous abortive attempts. For instance, there is already in existence an unexecuted understanding between CPC and the ACN for the creation of a new party with a brand new logo and a new flag already designed and all other paraphernalia of a political party put in place.

All these should be dusted up and built upon so that we do not waste valuable time revisiting ground that has already been covered. Your Committee should go back and pick up matters from there. At the risk of sounding overtly too optimistic , I may suggest that you should be able to finish your work in six weeks, at the end of which the CPC and ACN should be in a position to sign a declaration of intent to fuse their into two parties into one.

After signing the declaration, it should not take more than another six weeks for the parties to pursue the matter within their own constitutional context to ensure that the issue is legitimated through the proper procedures and processes of its own organs. And from there will be a matter of crossing the t's and dotting the i's. It is not impossible that the new party is presented to the people of Nigeria by the middle of this year.

And when it is, the new party should root for a proper federation as the basis of the union and for governance of the country, and should actively support the restructuring of the country. In part, this is because the 36-state structure of the country is simply not working; and it must therefore be rationalised. The party should root for democracy, rule of law and the entrenchment of democratic culture in the country; and the foundation of the new party should be anchored on the recognition and acceptance that our cultural and religious differences are a blessing and a source of strength, and should not be a cause for disunity.

The new party should as a matter of top most priority begin to tackle and plan for the creation of a new security architecture for the country and possibly for the entire sub-region, a development that may involve the recreation of local security networks and the restoration of traditional intelligence gathering techniques to shore up a police force that has obviously failed. And with regard to public service, the new party should press for the adoption of a new work ethnic that will bring lost glory and greater accountability back to governance.

As you are all, no doubt aware, our goal is to effect merger between two parties - a merger that will win this election and create a new, stronger, more truly democratic, proper, Federal Republic and change the attitude and thinking of our people. And with this, ladies and gentle men, the CPC Merger Committee is inaugurated in the name of God, and with our prayers to Him to grant us success in the talks we are about to commence, and to give us even greater success in carrying out the plans we have for the people of this country.

Finally, let me once again thank you most heartily and most sincerely for all your loyalty and unflinching support and commitment to our cause. Sometimes words fail me as to how to express my feelings with regard to the sacrifices you are making. This time I believe our anguish is at an end; because victory is in sight. I hope God will strengthen you for the last lap of the journey. Even though I believe we shall all have our reward in heaven, this time we shall strive to enjoy it right here on earth. But, of course, we do not measure our reward in material terms; our reward is in witnessing the success of our enterprise.

We do not have money, and we are shunned by most of those who do. We do not have a police force, and our supporters are the victims of those who do. We do not have the government on our side, and we are always short changed by it as it misapplies the Federal Might not to conduct credible elections, but to rig us out of our mandate. The one we have on our side is God and the people - and these are sufficient for us. And we shall not swerve from the cause we have chosen: our cause is the cause of the nation ; and to do good to our long-suffering people so that our country becomes great. So help us God.

Thank you very much for your attention.

General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR

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