TheCable

Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar will fail as they did in previous presidential elections, presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, has said.

Buhari, a retired major general and former head of state, declared his entry into the presidential race on Wednesday in Abuja.

Atiku, a former vice-president, had earlier declared his interest and picked the nomination form of his party.

Both are seeking the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the February 14, 2015 election in which one of them is likely to face President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been adopted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the sole candidate.

Okupe said Jonathan will not be threatened by either Buhari or Atiku if he decides to seek re-election.

He told correspondents at the state house, Abuja, on Wednesday that both Buhari and Atiku have been unsuccessful in their previous attempts and that these latest attempts “would not be different”.

He said: “The declaration by the opposition is not really something new. Most of the candidates of the opposition are serial failures. Atiku has tried twice and has failed, Buhari has done it four times and he has failed.

“If you present yourself for an election, first, second, third and fourth times, what new things are they bringing? Have they gone to school or are they bringing new things. We are absolutely unperturbed. The president is going to contest against serial losers.

“People who never win election. People who have no leadership quality and it is even now worse for them because this pesident has been given four years platform in which he has demonstrated his administrative capability, efficiency and delivery. It is unarguable that these people in the APC, it is a new and good party, they would become relevant in 2019 upward, not now.

“Their declaration and participation is not a threat to us. They have never won an election before. Somebody who has contested four times and failed four times. For instance, what is Buhari going to tell Nigerians now? What is the new thing he is coming up  with? He was a former military Head of State  and that is what he has done, but since then and now, what is the new story? You cannot compare ‘I will do to I have done’. It is not possible.”

He said Jonathan “has been under intense pressure from ordinary citizens, foreign and local interest groups, and especially even his party” to declare his intention.

“As for the timing of his declaration, it is my belief that it will be after due consideration that he will take an appropriate decision that would be of the larger interest of the party and the nation but I don’t see this being too long from now,” he said.

He also denied reports that Jonathan was planning to extend his tenure by two years on the account of the insurgency in the north-east.