NDA -ISIAH DECLARES FOR PRESIDENCY, SAYS IT IS TIME FOR BIG IDEAS

Presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sam Nda-Isaiah, yesterday said his desire to contest the 2015 presidency was not just to unseat President Goodluck Jonathan but to give Nigeria a better option for development and reclaim its lost glory.
The presidential aspirant and founder of Leadership Group made this statement yesterday in Minna, the Niger State capital, at his formal declaration to run for the 2015 presidency where he also unveiled his vision for Nigeria under the platform: “It’s Time for Big Ideas.”
He said: “Nigerians from everywhere yearn for change. They cry for a new direction because the country cannot continue on this path. That is why I want to be president.
“I have come to offer that change that will change Nigeria forever. I do not seek to be president simply because Jonathan is not a good president. I want to be that president that will change the course of Nigerian history forever. “That is why I come to you waving the scroll of ‘Big Ideas’ – big and bold ideas that will move our beleaguered country into the league of First World nations.”
Besides, Nda-Isaiah said his party, the APC, was more equipped with better presidential materials to effect the needed change Nigerians yearn for in 2015. He was referring to other presidential aspirants, former head of state General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the Kano state governor Rabiu Kwankwaso and Imo State governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
He said: “Anyone of us who becomes president next year would be infinitely better than the one we currently have,” he affirmed.
Taking a swipe at the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Jonathan, Nda-Isaiah lamented the parlous state of the nation, noting that under current dispensation, the nation had derailed. He scored president and his party, the PDP, very low.
“By common consent, the president and his party have failed. The PDP has also proved to be totally incapable of presenting its best people to Nigerians.
The PDP wants us to meekly accept Jonathan’s incompetence and his failures as our destiny and then continue with him. It is only a party like the PDP that will place the ego of one man above the wellbeing of an entire nation.
Nda-Isaiah revealed that the first thing he would do if elected as president was to unite the country as quickly as possible.
“As I have said in several fora, Nigeria is currently too divided to be called a nation. No country ever makes progress with the kind of divisions we see in our country today. Confronting this challenge is the simplest thing a serious leader can do.
“There is no magic about it; all a leader needs to do is be sincere about it. I will need to unite the whole of Nigeria behind me as quickly as possible in order to be able to work the big ideas that will change this nation forever.
“Any president who governs his country with fairness, justice and charity to all will have no problem uniting his people, no matter how disparate they may be,” he said.
Nda-Isaiah’s presidential declaration attracted APC big wigs, led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who disclosed that all the party’s presidential aspirants had agreed to build the party and support whoever, among them, won the ticket to run for president in 2015.
Atiku said all the APC presidential aspirants were capable of presiding over the country and that they were ready to put aside their individual aspirations and work for whoever emerged as the candidate of the party.
Atiku said. “Anyone of us presidential aspirant of APC is capable of being the president of Nigeria more than President Goodluck Jonathan. We (the presidential aspirants) don’t insult each other; we are going together and whoever gets the ticket, we will work together with him.”
On his part, Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi, faulted the withdrawal of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal security details and accused both the Department of State Services (DSS) and the police of being the armed wing of the PDP.
He reminded the people that even though they were desirous of change, it would not come until they work for it as history has shown that changes do not occur without people working for it. He urged the people to assiduously work for the change they desire by using their votes to send PDP packing in 2015.
Amaechi commended Nda-Isaiah for his courage to run for the presidency – an indication that he knows what he is doing, and restated that the APC governors had resolved to support any of the presidential aspirants that would emerge as the candidate of the party.
On his part, chairman of the occasion and Senate minority whip, Senator George Akume, said the party was ready to give a new lease of life to the country in 2015.
‘Nigerians,” he said, “need change for the betterment of our people with men and women of big ideas of patriotism who love all of us.”
Presenting Nda-Isaiah to the people, the immediate-past governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said that he was presenting him to celebrate excellence, courage and competence and described him as the epitome of a person prepared for the office of the president.
He recalled that the aspirant had always been in the midst of progressives through The Buhari Organisation (TBO), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and now the APC, and by always embodying competence and integrity.
Akume said the APC needed to be united to confront the ruling PDP ahead of the 2015 election, adding that as a first step, APC was already builiding bridges of unity.
“As a party we do not hate President Jonathan but we dislike his ideas and policies; imagine the Chibok girls who are yet to be rescued, is that the country of our dream? This is a challenge we must confront and defeat come 2015.
“And the only way to do this is unity of purpose and brotherliness within the APC so that we can effect the change Nigerians desire.
“Already we are seeing the signs of unity and we must sustain it because the presence of the former vice president who is also a presidential aspirant shows that there is no bitterness among the aspirants,” Akume said at the occasion.
Present at the declaration were Chief Audu Ogbe, Taraba State senator and APC governorship aspirant Senator Aisha Alhassan, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, Otunba Oyewole Fasewe, governorship aspirant Niger State Abu Bello, Niger State APC chairman Engr Jibrin Mohammed Imam, Hon Emmanuel Bello and several youth and women organisations.
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