MADUABUCHI NMERIBEH/Kano

Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari declared in Kano, northwest Nigeria, on Tuesday that Nigeria is indivisible, citing cultural, inter-marriage, commercial and socio-political integration among various ethnic and religious groups in the country.

Buhari who interacted with Kano business community in a Town Hall meeting held at Africa House, Kano Government House also regretted the crisis of unemployment, particularly, among the youths, saying, “wherever I go around the country, I get frightened by the large number of men jumping and sweating, following the convoy, most of them unemployed.”

He also described terrorism in Nigeria as a fraud that has no link to religion, insisting that it is only good governance that can eradicate terrorism in the country.

“It is a menace that could be confronted with seriousness. We should stop playing the ostrich and do what is right. The world is watching us and as one calling the shots in the African continent, Nigeria should be seen to be up and doing on how to make the nation secure,” he stated.

General Buhari also urged his supporters to eschew violence during and after the February poll, noting that decent political objectives can never be achieved through violence.

“I myself am a victim of a well calculated plot at the time I was blatantly fingered for spearheading the violence that preceded the 2011 presidential elections. At the end of it all, I was found to have no hands in it.

“It was even discovered that I lost some of my belongings to the crises. So, one could clearly read between the lines and see the irony of such an accusation,” he stated.

General Buhari regretted that despite the story of Nigeria’s economy being the biggest in Africa, it has not reflected to the lives of over 60 per cent of Nigerians, mostly, the youths.

He said if he becomes Nigeria’s president, his government will create three million jobs every year in line with the APC manifesto and his three-point agenda which is security, job creation and sustainable fight against corruption.

Buhari also promised the Kano business community to resuscitate the ailing industries, ensure steady power supply and as well, make the North the food basket of Africa.

Buhari, however, commended Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso for his foresight and efforts in re-modelling Kano, promising that as the President of Nigeria, his government will accord Kano a top priority considering its position as the commercial nerve-centre of the North.