As the take-off of the nationwide presidential campaign of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) draws nearer, his party, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has declared one week of intensive fasting and prayers towards achieving a successful campaign exercise.


In Abuja, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), launched his campaign with a colloquium, challenging Nigerians, especially youths, to use the general election as a good opportunity to make changes in the country and liberate themselves from the slavery arising from the "misrule" of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The one week of prayers and fasting declared by the CPC, which started on Monday, February 14, 2011, will be rounded off with prayers in mosques on Friday and churches on Sunday.
A statement by Buhari's spokesperson Wednesday, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said: "The high points of the prayers include thanking God for the mercies He has shown to Buhari and his associates all these years of political battles and the successful transformation of a political movement into a party.


"Prayers are also to be offered for God's protection over Gen. Buhari, his family, all candidates running on his party's platform, his supporters all over the country and Nigeria in general; just as there will be supplications for strength during the campaigns and wisdom to give Nigeria leadership and direction which the nation is in dire need of at this critical juncture. The campaign programme, which promises the kind of excitement never seen in recent time, is to be unfolded at the end of the prayer sessions."
Meanwhile, speaking at the colloquium to mark the unveiling of the party's manifesto and agenda for Nigeria at THISDAY Dome in Abuja, Ribadu said: "If the youths of Egypt where our leaders go for medical treatment and whose standard of living is far better than our own even when we are richer than them in both human and natural resources could rise up to chase out their leader for mismanaging their resources, why should Nigerians not use the decision time in April to effect the very needful change by flushing out corrupt bad leaders?"


He noted that Egypt with about 80 million people generates 25,000 megawatts of power and even during the 18 days of protest electricity was steady in the country.
"Let us put one point in mind: if we fail to urgently realise the vision of a modern Nigeria, the echoes of currently muted, but potentially destabilising change will soon consume our land," he warned.
Stressing further the danger bad governance portends, he said: "Seventy per cent of our citizens are under the age of 30. They are active, restless and curious... 43 million of them are daily exploring the neural of the internet as a communication and social networking medium. Yet the half century of our nation's history have loudly left them behind through failure of governance, failure of economic management and a failure of the national social contract."


Ribadu said while it had become fashionable for everybody including the PDP whom he described as Poverty Development Party (PDP) to talk of change, ACN has exhibited evidence of competent leadership in the four states it is administering and therefore "we clearly earn the historic responsibility of leading the mission of change".
He said PDP had not only failed the nation "but are dangerously dividing our people".
While appreciating the four ACN governors who were all present, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, doing well in their states for ACN, Ribadu said: "Our challenge now is to reproduce that example of competent leadership at the centre when we take over the reins of power and form the next government come May 29."
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Also, speaking on the occasion which attracted a large number of ACN candidates and their supporters across the country, the former National Chairman of PDP who is the Chairman of ACN Manifesto Committee, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said the party believes in market economy but government should intervene for the people in certain key areas like housing and agriculture, stressing that agriculture goes beyond distribution of fertilisers.
The deputy chairman of the party, Boss Mustapha, who represented the National Chairman Bisi Akande, said that the idea of a colloquium to kick-start the nationwide campaign is the party's way "to demonstrate its willingness to chase out PDP and its incompetence". Fayemi, who was chairman of the opening session, said the party is demonstrating what it stands for.