General Sam Momah (rtd.), a former member of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council and Minister of Science and Technology, who once served as a Principal Staff Officer to General Muhammadu Buhari, (rtd.), the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has stressed the need for Nigerians to ensure that President Goodluck Jonathan does not remain in power beyond 2015, as allowing him win a second term would spell doom for the country.
In an interview with Vanguard, Momah said while Jonathan had tried his best, leaving core issues like security and corruption unattended to showed that he is not the right man to ensure the continued existence and economic growth of Nigeria. Buhari, on the other hand, stands for integrity, according him. He described the APC candidate as incorruptible.
“Everybody has antecedents; I have worked under Buhari as his Principal Staff Officer when he was a GOC. We know him as incorruptible, we know him as being a man of Spartan life, one who is disciplined. We know him as a man of his words; his word is his bond, so he can be trusted,” said Momah.
“He has been patriotic, he is an achiever, one that you give a task to, and he gets it done,” he added.
“To us in the army, we know that there is no doubt that General Buhari is vying to become the president of Nigeria virtually for only patriotic reasons. I was privileged to visit him in Daura when I went there to attend an event; I was amazed to find out that Buhari has only a bungalow in his village and nothing more. There were no luxury leather chairs there but simple wooden chairs. He lives a Spartan life because he does not believe in tampering with money that is not his.
Momah also described as shameful, the fact that the certificate saga dragged on as long as it did. He wondered why any one would doubt if a man, who retired as a senior officer in the army, and had gone through several international courses, had a certificate.
“The certificate saga is something that they should realise that they are denigrating the image of Nigeria and not just General Buhari,” he said.
Stressing the need for Jonathan to be voted out, Momah said: “If you cannot secure the lives of Nigerians, then I do not see why you are there as the Commander-in-Chief of the country. You are keeping some of us sleepless.
