I won’t sleep until Nigeria is in shape – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday, said he would not sleep until Nigeria was brought back to shape. Buhari said the country under his watch had started working but must be properly shaped to right the wrongs that had been endemic in the system for so many years,

adding that all the accusations, insinuations and blackmail against him that “he is a religious fundamentalist and hater of the south east” were all lies calculated to sow seed of discord in the country.

Speaking during empowerment/ Christmas party of a non-governmental organisation, Initiative for Demonstrating Change in Nigeria (IDCN) organised for the people of Amagu community in Ikwo local government area of Ebonyi state, President Buhari who was represented by Executive Director of Administration and Training, Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Dr. Steve Egbo explained that he was a detribalised Nigerian who loves all sections of the country.

“President Buhari asked me to tell you that Nigeria is working, Nigeria has started working. He asked me to tell you that he will not relent; he will not sleep until Nigeria is brought back to shape. He told us we the south east leaders a lot of things that have gone wrong in this country in the last few years.

“Some of the things he said we never heard before, some of them we never read in the press. As a commander in Chief, he knows a lot of things we do not know.

He asked me to tell you that he loves the southeast and that he is a friend of the south east. He asked me to tell you that all these accusations and insinuations against him and his administration are all lies calculated to create a bad feeling between him and the Igbo people.

He asked me to assure you that from the beginning, he has been the friend of the south east and he will remain a friend of the south east to the down”, he stated.

He noted that in 2003, he picked an Igbo man late Chuba Okadigbo as his running mate and the south east refused to vote for him.

He further explained that in 2007, he picked another Igbo man in the person of Chief Edwin Umezuoke and the people of the south east still refused to vote for him and that he came back in 2011 to pick another Igbo man as his running mate and was told by the south east that Jonathan was their presidential candidate.

Buhari commended the Initiative for Demonstrating Change in Nigeria for empowering over N10, 000 women and youths of Ebonyi state.

Earlier, National President of the NGO Comrade Chinedu Ogah said empowerment was to complement effort of President Buhari in reducing poverty in the country, and therefore called for total support of the President in 2019.

Edward Nnachi, Abakaliki