Samuel Awoyinfa, Abeokuta

The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has advised Nigerians to emulate her husband by never giving up on their dreams and aspirations.

She said her husband became Nigeria’s president in 2015 due to his doggedness, persistence and compassion for the masses.

She said this in Abeokuta on Tuesday in Abeokuta during the launch of a book titled, “Buhari vs Yar’Adua: Facing the future,” written by a Special Assistant on Media to the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Opeyemi Soyombo.

The First Lady was represented by the wife of the Ogun State governor, Dr Olufunso Amosun.

She commended the efforts of the author, who documented the legal struggles of her husband in the 2007 election petition challenging the victory of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Despite Buhari’s legal struggles which saw him moving to Court of Appeal and to the Supreme Court trying to prove that he won the 2007 presidential election, he lost the case. But he never gave up his presidential ambition.

Mrs Buhari noted that the importance of record keeping or documentation could not be over-emphasised because without it history would be distorted.

She said there were lots of lessons to learn from the life of President Buhari who contested the presidential election consecutively four times before he eventually won in 2015.

She said, “There are lots of lessons to learn from the life of President Muhammadu Buhari, most especially his doggedness and compassion for the masses. President Buhari contested presidential election consecutively four times before he eventually won in 2015.
“His victory has paid off considering his passion for helping the masses and most importantly the successes recorded in the anti-corruption war of his government.

“I commend the efforts of the writer for documenting the Presidential Election suit between the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and President Umaru Yar’Adua of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2007.

“This shows that the author has been following with keen interest elections held in the country and the petitions arising from them. In most recent shared views and writings on human and societal development, the investment made on other people gives tremendous yields; thus the facts and authenticity of the book are invaluable.”

The chairman of the occasion, who’s a retired judge of the Ogun State High Court, Justice Ademola Bakre, said Nigerians must all work for a better future of Nigeria.

While he lamented the rot in the country’s judiciary, he warned against interference and undue pressure in the affairs of judges.

He said, “I want to appeal that Nigerians should allow the judges to do their job, people should stop putting unnecessary pressure on them.”
Speaking with journalists after the launch, the author said he was motivated to write the 179-page book, which was divided into seven chapters, to forestall election rigging in the future in Nigeria.

Soyombo noted that Buhari was short-changed in the 2007 presidential election, adding that the book would “ensure that we have credible, free and fair elections and to ensure that the judiciary on no account, either by design or default, would endorse electoral robbery.”

The book was reviewed by Mr Kayode Oyede of the Department of Public Private Law, Faculty of Law, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos.

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