I Am Not Surprised I Won - Buhari Opens Ups

 

The president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has said he is not surprised that he emerged the winner of the March 28 presidential election.

Buhari defeated incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan by over two million votes.

Speaking in an interview from Abuja with CNN anchor, Christiane Amanpour, on Wednesday, April 1, Buhari attributed his victory to the successful merger of the All Progressives Congress in 2013.

According to him, the merger had signalled the beginning of the end of Jonathan’s administration.

He said: “I am not surprised because of how we came into the merger. The main opposition parties in Nigeria decided to come together to face the ruling party. That means we had an additional spread and we have experienced political parties and politicians across the length and breadth of the country; so it’s not surprising.”

He told Amanpour that as soon as he gets sworn in, he would start a process of national reconciliation in Nigeria, especially in the violence-prone areas of the Niger Delta and the North-East.

“The actual division that is worth bothering about in terms of social instability and insecurity are in the North-East and the in the Niger Delta, which I think have been with this country long enough that we know how they started and what stage they are in now and we are confident that we will rapidly give attention to the insecurity in the country and I believe that we will effectively deal with them within a few months in office,” Buhari said.

He added that he would fight the corruption that has eaten deep into the nation aggressively and pay attention to curbing the insurgency in the northeast region of the country.

For the first time in Nigeria’s history, the opposition defeated the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in democratic elections.

This is not Buhari’s first time leading Nigeria, but it is his first time in nearly 30 years. He was the military head of state in late 1983, but was ousted by another military coup in August 1985.

This is his fourth attempt for the post of the president. He finally won it after failing three consecutive times.

After emerging winner of the presidential elections, he spoke in an interview with BBC’s Peter Okwoche, in which he discussed his plans on how he will tackle Boko Haram.