Fayose, in a statement made available toSaturday PUNCH on Friday, blamed the APC for what he called a “campaign of hate.”
He described the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as an “Islamist who is out to return power to the northerners and implement Islamic agenda.”
He said this could trigger crisis in the Niger-Delta area of the country in the South-South, where President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party hails from. Buhari, on the other hand, is from the North-Western part of the country.
Jonathan, Buhari and 11 other candidates will vie for the presidential seat at the polls in February, 2014.He said, “The APC as a party is saying that it will form parallel government if Buhari loses, implying that the party has admitted defeat and is ready to throw the country into chaos.
“The APC people are already telling Nigerians what will happen after the election if President Jonathan wins.
“This campaign of hate from the APC has now triggered a kind of reasoning in the mindset of other stakeholders, especially the Niger-Delta people, who see the Goodluck Jonathan presidency as their turn, with the reality that, if Buhari wins, there will be crisis in the Niger-Delta, the area that produces the resources with which Nigeria is sustained.
“If the Niger-Delta region erupts in crisis and the Igbos in the South-East return to the old antics and decide to secede, what happens to the North that can only contribute between three to five per cent to the economy of Nigeria?
“Is it not a fact that Boko Haram is a Northern insurgency that is linked to the Northern elements, but now being used to blackmail President Goodluck Jonathan? Will it surprise anyone if the Niger-Delta people of the South-South and the Igbos in the South-East call the bluff of the North and secede?”
He said, “The reality is, if care is not taken, the end of the election might be secession or religious war, aside from the global economic crisis, which is a cold war on its own.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a telephone conversation with one of our correspondents, said people should stop comparing Buhari when he was a military ruler to the Buhari that is vying to become democratically elected the Nigerian President.
“You cannot compare who Buhari was when he was a military ruler to a civilian who he is today,” he said.
Source: Punch
