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| Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari |
Former Head of
State and three time Presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said the ongoing merger
talks by the major opposition political parties will determine if he will run
for president in 2015.
Buhari said this in Abuja on Wednesday [Jan. 16] while fielding
questions from reporters after inaugurating the Congress for Progressive Change
Merger Committee.
The 18-member
committee is saddled with the responsibility of having talks with the Action
Congress of Nigeria on the proposed merger.
He explained
that the CPC would first conclude discussions with the ACN after which talks
would be initiated with the All Nigeria Peoples Party. Buhari, however,
assured, “It is not impossible that
the new party is presented to the people of Nigeria by the middle of this year”.
The Katsina
State-born general, who acknowledged the fact that he had said he would not run
for the office of the President again, having failed to win the election three
times, said he would wait for the outcome of the merger talks before giving a
definite answer.
He said:
“For
the umpteenth time, I said it (that I won’t run again), it is on record that I
would not present myself again for election”.
“But
after that, I have said so many times that members of my party and groups went
and said that I don’t belong to myself and that I belong to them. They also
said they belong to me”.
“I
asked them to go and organise the party and if you approach me I may consider
it. This is the stage we are”.
“I
mentioned it several times and I’m waiting on my party and if we have a merger,
it will make things much easier for me. The new party will then decide whether
it will offer me its ticket and it is up to me to consider accepting it or
rejecting it”.
The committee,
he said, should be able to finish its job in six weeks before the two parties
would now constitutionally seal the merger in another six weeks.
Buhari said the new party should actively support the restructuring
of the country, adding its 36-state structure was not working.
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