By Emmanuel Mogbede

Abuja, Oct. 4, 2018 (NAN)

The United Kingdom chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on international communities to support the 2019 re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure consolidation and continuity.

Prince Ade Omole, the chapter’s leader, made the call in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

According to the statement, Omole will be presenting a paper at the British House of Parliament to showcase the achievements of the Buhari-led administration and to urge international communities and agencies to support his 2019 re-election bid.

This, he said, was in view of Buhari's several achievements within the last three years and the need for continuity and consolidation.

He maintained that President Buhari was better placed to deliver and consolidate on his developmental strides than a change in government at this moment of Nigeria's political history.

Omole said that amongst the array of aspirants in other political parties seeking to contest the Nigerian presidency in 2019, it was only President Buhari that could pass the integrity and anti-corruption test.

This, he said, was especially so, because other aspirants had one form of corruption case or the other hanging on them.

He noted that Nigeria was too big and too important to be ignored by foreign powers.

He added that the achievements made by the Buhari-led administration could be in jeopardy should the governance of the country be left in the hands of those that allegedly brought it to its knees.

The leader of the APC UK chapter noted that though the country may still have its challenges, it was doing better under the present administration.

He added that under the administration, Nigeria had become a shining example in democratic processes across continents, saying that it was now a lead example, and was followed across continents anywhere there was democracy.

He said that beyond the fact that President Buhari was rebuilding Nigeria`s economy and fighting corruption head-on, he had eloquently acquitted himself as a true democrat and a believer in democratic tenets and a true, free and fair elections.

He added that Buhari's integrity and spirit of fairness was unquestionable.

Omole further added that while it was conceded that a multicultural and pluralistic society such as Nigeria would naturally have its stress points and fault lines, bad leadership in the past had compounded the situation.

This, he said, resulted in magnifying the country’s differences beyond what they really were.

He stressed that such politicians were holding the country`s diversity as a sign of collective weakness instead of strength, adding that President Buhari was poised to change the narrative.

He noted that the president’s relationship with international communities’ and his recent official visit to China was already yielding positive results for Nigerians, and should be consolidated on.

This, he said, was especially as a Chinese company, the Joint Venture Partners handling the 3,050 Megawatts Mambilla Hydro-electric Plant project had assured that work would commence on the project early in 2019.

He recalled that President Buhari got the assurance at a meeting with Prof Lyu Ze Xiang, the President of Chinese General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC), the construction company handling the project, in Beijing, China during the visit.

Omole added that the Buhari administration initiated the Social Investment Programmes (SIP) that was touching the lives of Nigerian masses directly.

He noted that the SIP which included the N-Power Volunteer Scheme (NPOWER) had absorbed over 500,000 unemployed graduates in all the 36 states of the federation who are now duly engaged and adding value to the economy.

"The SIP also evolved a Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), where almost ten million school children are being fed daily, while tens of thousands of cooks have been engaged in different states.

"In November 2016, President Buhari initiated the Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP) Scheme in collaboration with Bank of Industry, where soft loans ranging from N10,000 to N100,000 have been given to over a million traders across states.

"The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme, a component of the SIP, now funds thousands of less privileged Nigerians with the monthly N5,000 stipend across states of the federation, "Omole said.

He recalled that the Buhari administration had through  the Ecological Fund Office embarked on the commissioning of about 70 ecological intervention projects in communities across the country`s six geo-political zones.

He said the projects worth billions of naira was approved to end the devastation and subsequent suffering caused by desertification, gully erosion and flooding in specific locations and communities across the country.

He further said that the interventions by the Ecological Fund Office in affected communities had solved problems that had given concern to citizens whose means of livelihood and properties were threatened by or lost to desertification, flooding and disastrous gully erosion.

This, he said, was in addition to several other intervention programmes that were greatly impacting the lives of Nigerians positively.

(NAN)