National Chairman of the United Progressive Party(UPP)., Chief Chekwas Okorie has reiterated the party’s endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2019 elections, insisting that there was no going back on the choice.
He said this in the party’s New Year message made available to the press. He said: “the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our party to adopt President Muhammadu Buhari as our candidate for the 2019 presidential election was embraced by all party members without a dissenting opinion in spite of well-known machinations of non-party members who were unsettled by our collective decision to support and campaign for the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari for the second and final term in office for successfully resisting these agents of destabilization, I duff my hat to all loyal and trusted members of UPP.
Our target in throwing our support to President Muhammadu Buhari is to make his imminent victory to assume the stature of a national consensus. In this way, every section of Nigeria shall have equal claim to the victory, while at the same time giving the President the comfort and latitude to consolidate and improve on his governance profile as well as the socio-economic development of Nigeria with minimum distraction between 2019 and 2023. We hereby urge our members to redouble their efforts as well as call on all well-meaning Nigerians to vote massively for President Muhammadu Buhari on the 16th of February, 2019.”
Okorie noted that the UPP was disappointed by the poor quality of the opposition and content of the campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential campaign handlers. “We expect the PDP that having been in government for good 16 years from 1999 – 2015, should be telling Nigerians what it did with the enormous resources of Nigeria at their disposal and what they will do differently if elected to power. But unfortunately all that emanates from their camp smacks of panic and incitement,” he noted.
While wishing the members and supporters of the party for their commitment and loyalty to the party leadership, Okorie said the party has remained one of the few national political parties that have existed for a period of six years and above with a commendable internal party cohesion and stability. “The democratic content of the UPP is indeed very high. The emergence of our candidates for the 2019 general elections followed such due process that met the expectations of
Speaking on the general elections, Okorie said any political party that promotes the agenda of destabilizing the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at this period of the countdown to the general elections is definitely an enemy of our democracy.
“It is evident that the conduct of our elections has improved tremendously under the present INEC leadership with an unprecedented zero interference by the Buhari presidency.
“Any call by any political party or group of political parties whatever its name, to sack the leadership of INEC as is being canvassed recently by some political parties is most irresponsible and unpatriotic. We are satisfied that the measures and innovations put in place by INEC to conduct the 2019 general elections will deliver the most credible, transparent and acceptable election in Nigeria.
We believe President Muhammadu Buhari in his assurances of non-interference with the electoral process because his track record in this regard speaks for him.
“We urge all political parties to be vigilant during the elections and educate their supporters on prevention of rigging and other manipulation of the electoral processes so that at the end of the day our democracy shall be better for it and those elected through such transparent and acceptable processes will be accountable to the Nigerian people while serving in their various capacities, he noted.”