President Muhammadu Buhari has been described as the leader Nigeria needs to overcome its challenges, with respect to the Federal Government’s anti-corruption campaign.
This was according to the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, who highlighted some of the successes the All Progressives Congress (APC) has recorded during an exclusive interview with Channels Television.
“No matter what you will accuse Buhari of, nobody can accuse Buhari of corruption,” he said. “He’s a stabilising factor in this country, he’s a man of impeccable credentials.”
Amid speculations over the President’s decision to contest the presidential election in 2019, Shettima believes President Buhari is the only one who has a say on such decision.
He, however, said that nobody can force the President to contest in 2019, neither can anyone preventing for running for a second term in office.
“That decision should be made by the President; nobody should ask him not to contest, in the same vein nobody should push him to contest. He has his own health to take care of, he’s not a young man by any standard.
“The nation truly needs the wisdom, the integrity, the commitment of the likes of Buhari but believe me, whatever decision he takes, we are solidly behind him,” he said.
On the call for restructuring, the governor said: “My own take on this restructuring debate is that we are treating the symptoms, not the disease.”
“Restructuring my foot; let’s restructure our minds, let’s restructure our quality of governance. When people are talking of artificial intelligence, when others are talking of robotics engineering, of nanotechnology, we are talking of restructuring the federation; our problem is not an issue of devolution of powers, let’s be very honest.
“Our problem, as Chinua Achebe rightly encapsulated, is largely that of leadership. Leadership that will put the nation first is much more important than restructuring the nation. Let’s restructure our minds. Let’s restructure our quality of leadership,” Shettima added.
He also touched on the war against terrorism in the North East and faulted a recent report from the United Nations which claimed the terrorists were in control of three local government areas in Borno State.
The governor said, “Honestly, I disagree with the UN report because we have been on ground for quite some time, we are the sitting administration and we should be in a better position to tell the world the ground realities in the state.
“Five or six Boko Haram (terrorists) will come and burn a village, kill as many people as they could and their prestige in the international jihadist community will rise. So these are nihilists, these are lunatics but otherwise, considerable progress has been made. They have been sufficiently decimated.”
CHANNELS
