The presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), had on Tuesday, October 14, 2014, visited Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital.
During his visit at the state, he appealed to the people of Portharcourt and the entire South-Southern part to vote for him if he eventually scales through his party’s primaries
Buhari disclosed that the aim of his visit was to invite the governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi to his official declaration of his presidential ambition under the auspices of the APC.
Governor Amaechi who gave a speech at the event, said Buhari was a “detribalized” Nigerian, adding that “those who describe you as a religious bigot do not know you. Frankly, I used to think that way when I was in the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, but all that changed when I joined the APC and have the opportunity to relate with you very closely as a politician that is truly detribalized in the true sense of the word.”
He added: “The problem that you have in politics which I have come to observe is that those who managed your image in the past did not manage it properly. They allowed the erroneous label of you being a religious bigot to stick. Let me take myself for example, if you accuse me once, I accuse you 20 times and then go to the media to tell them my own side of the story.
“As you can see, most of those who have come to welcome you to government house are Christians. The percentage of your supporters in Rivers State who are Muslims are not more than 10 per cent. So, you can now see that the majority of your supporters here are non-Muslims. It is evident that your support base in Rivers State is not based on tribal sentiments. As for us, you are a detribalized Nigerian nationalist.”
