Buhari feeling ‘heavily sorry’ for himself after obtaining N27m nomination form

Muhammadu Buhari, a presidential hopeful on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, on Thursday obtained his nomination form for the party’s presidential primary scheduled for December.

Speaking at APC’s national secretariat in Abuja, Buhari lamented that he could not influence the N27.5 million price of the form.

“Twenty-seven million naira is a big sum. Thankfully I have personal relationship with the manager of my bank in Kaduna, and I told him that ‘soon the forms will be out, so, whether I am on red, or green or even black, please honour it otherwise I may lose the nomination,” he said.

“It is a pity I could not influence this amount to be reduced ‎for ladies and the physically challenged who intend to participate. I always looked left and right in our meetings, but I could not read sympathy, so I kept my trap.

“But I felt heavily sorry for myself because I do not want to go and ask somebody to pay for my nomination form because I always try to pay myself, at least for the nomination.”

Buhari declared his intention to run for president at a well-attended ceremony at the Eagles Square, Abuja, on Wednesday. accusing the People Democratic Party (PDP) of presiding over the country’s period of worst decline.

But presidential aide Doyin Okupe soon dismissed the threat posed by Buhari (and Atiku Abukakar, who is also running), branding APC’s intending presidential candidates as serial failures.

PDP would later formally welcome the retired general to the contest, but Olisah Metuh, its national publicity secretary, punctured most of the claims in Buhari’s declaration speech, saying they were “a misrepresentation and distortion of facts”.