Tanko Yakasai: “Why I will never support Buhari till I die”

Elder Statesman, Tanko Yakasai, has revealed the main reason why he never and will not support President Buhari.

Speaking recently with TheSun, Yakasai, said that the way the president-elect (Buhari) came into power was one of the reasons.

He said; “I joined politics some 67 years ago, and I resigned from partisan politics 20 years ago, so, I don’t have any followers now. I have only my conviction, and if it tells me what is the right thing to do, I do it.

“I don’t fear anybody. I don’t believe in Buhari; I don’t believe in anybody, who would use the weapon provided to him by the nation to rob the nation of its civility. Anybody who takes over power through the barrel of gun is not my friend, whether it is Buhari or anybody; they are never my friends. I never supported Murtala who through gun became Head of state.

“I never supported Buhari who overthrew Shagari. The way he first came to power is my concern because millions of Nigerians sacrificed to stand in the scorching sun; some exposed to all sort of targets to cast their votes and elect a candidate of their choice; the election was conducted and the loser went to tribunal, and the court tried the case on merit and decided that the winner was actually the winner. The man who complained appealed the case up to the highest court in the country, and the court went through the case and affirmed the judgement of the lower courts.

“After all, these things that cost energy, time and money have been done, then somebody came and truncated it.

“I followed Shagari to all the 19 states at that time and every local government headquarters then, and after all these troubles, Nigerians came out to cast their votes, only for somebody to come and use the weapon against the nation and change the government.

“To me, like I said, I joined politics 67 years ago, and since then, I abandoned my profession and politics then became my calling. There are many people like me, who made all these sacrifices just in an effort to establish and build democracy so that we can develop our nation because democracy is instrumental to the development of any country.

“For somebody to hide somewhere only to come and take over power for his own sake, not because he has something to offer, that person will never be my friend till I go to my grave. I don’t contest election, the last time I voted was about ten years ago or more. I think I didn’t vote for the past three consecutive presidential elections.

On another reason, Yakasai, said Buhari was not ready to lead Nigeria. According to him, Buhari never had any programme that will move the country forward.

“Why is it that Buhari didn’t perform in the last four years; it is because he has no programme?

“What is the programme of Buhari to address the issue of abject poverty in Nigeria, what is his programme to create employment opportunities for Nigerians?, the Elder Statesman asked.

“There are millions of unemployed youth, apart from graduates, I mean those who have no university education, there are areas that you create to employ these people; it is not a question of speaking big grammar or Professor of Development to give you a programme.

“Once you decide on these two issues and you commit your mind to them – improve agriculture, which is everywhere in Nigeria and also everywhere in the world, and within one year you can create employment for 24 millions of people if you have the right policy on agriculture.

“What programme has Buhari in respect of agriculture and power. For four years we are marking time. In fact, about four years ago before Buhari took over, in my house here, we were getting power daily, maybe nine, eleven or even 15 hours sometimes.

“Today, two three days, you can’t talk of getting electricity for one minute. Everyday, I have to buy petrol or gas for my generators.

“Do you know any programme of the APC that can increase the current mega watts of electricity to 6,000 next year? Do you know of any programme of Buhari and APC that will change the narratives in Nigeria by this time next year? If you knew, put it as an answer to your question. I’m challenging you.