I Won’t Attend Council Of State Meeting —Buhari

Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the CPC Presidential candidate in the April general elections, says he will not participate in the Council of State meeting until after a ruling on the party’s petition by the Presidential Election Tribunal.

Buhari, whose party is challenging the election of President Goodluck Jonathan in the election, said this on Monday in London in a lecture he delivered at Chatham House.

The Council of State meeting is presided over by a sitting president, and attended by all former Heads of State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Buhari refused to attend the meeting when he challenged the results of the 2003 Presidential Election won by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. In the lecture entitled: “Nigeria’s 2011 Elections: Reflections on the Process and Prospects for Nigeria,” Buhari said he would await the ruling of the tribunal before attending the meeting.

“I will wait for the outcome of the case before I decide on my membership of the Council,” the Western Europe correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Buhari as saying.

He recalled that he was in court for 15 months in 2003.

“After the 2003 elections, I stopped attending the council meeting because we had challenged the outcome of the election that brought Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to power.

“I hope the CPC will not have any cause to go to the Supreme Court just like we did then,” he added.

Buhari explained that he cried during the campaign for the April elections because, according to him, “there is no social justice in Nigeria”.

He expressed regret that “there is so much decay in the system, which makes it difficult for the average Nigerian to afford basic necessities, including good education”.

Pastor Tunde Bakare, Buhari’s running mate in the election, said he shared Buhari’s view.

“Until genuine democracy is entrenched, the polity will remain unstable,” he said.