Raheem Akingbolu
The South West zonal arm of the National Committee of Buhari Support Groups (NCBSG) has cautioned Nigerians against pushing hate campaigns into the streets against President Muhammadu Buhari. The group has also described as unpatriotic, the negative picture being painted as a result of the president’s vacation to the United Kingdom.
Speaking during a press briefing, which was organised at the weekend, to announce the February 17 inaugural meeting of the zone in Lagos, the National Secretary of NCBSG, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, expressed his dissatisfaction with the way some individuals and groups politicise everything in the country.
“It is sad that Nigeria is still at this stage of pettiness and sensational politics. Decades after independence, one would expect that we would have redefined our politics. The news some people are pushing out following our president’s vacation is unpatriotic. We should shun hate campaign, pray for our leaders to succeed and stop being pessimistic,”
Prior to the press briefing, a political Leader from the South West Zone, Senator Ajayi Borrofice, had presided over a roundtable session of representatives of each of the states of the South West region.
Addressing journalists afterwards, Senator Borrofice stated that their discussion was not in any way related to 2019. He explained that it was a discussion on how to organise the zonal meeting of the National committee of the group coming up in February. He added that it is an effort to maintain the party structure and re-engineer the machinery to meet the needs of the people.
According to Borrofice, the national committee of the Buhari support Group coordinates the various Buhari support groups in the country, stating that over 300 delegates in the zone will meet in February to carry out a SWOT analysis of situation.
He said: “The meeting here is for the South West geo-political zone. Today, we met with representatives from each state: Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti to plan for the bigger zonal meeting in February. We are expecting over 300 delegates to be drawn from the 61 Buhari support groups within our zone.
“The major reason of the meeting is for us to come together and look inwards to see how far we have gone, what needs to be done. The group worked actively in support of Mr. President to get into office and because of that, the group has become stakeholders and are all interested in the success of this administration. It is important that from time to time we interact and come up with advice to Mr. President,” he said.
He said members of the group are ears and eyes of Mr. President and they will ensure that whatever response they get from the people will be tabled to the president.
“These delegates are the grass-rooters and they are youths. You know 45% of voters in this country are youths. After the zonal meeting, we will be talking to a large section of the electorates to get reactions, peoples’ feelings and what they expect.
“Mr. Presidents administration is a responsible administration that listen to the people that elected them. Mr. President didn’t set up the group but those behind it are those who have access to Mr. President and I’m sure he would listen to them.
“We are not afraid of the response we are likely to get from the people. We will table them before the president and we are sure he will listen and act on them,” he said.
