Tukur said President Buhari was on the right track concerning fighting corruption and insecurity, and has in the last 100 days "delivered on his promises of confronting corruption, power, unemployment and insecurity.”
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and once Governor ofthe defunct Gongola State, has hailed the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari in his first 100 days in office.
He was speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Thursdayas part of the events marking his 80th birthday.
Tukur said President Buhari was on the right track concerning fighting corruption and insecurity, and has in the last 100 days "delivered on his promises of confronting corruption, power, unemployment and insecurity.”
"To me, they are going the right way, they are not deviating from what they said they will do," he declared.
Of himself, he said some powerful forces within the PDP forced him out, adding that if he had still been there, his party would not have been defeated during the last general elections.
Notwithstanding, he ruled out the possibility of his joining the All Progressives Congress as some members of the PDP have done.
Tukur said it would be difficult for him to change his behaviours, saying, "At 80 what do you want somebody to do? You want to change somebody character at 80? Is it possible? At 80 you remain because you cannot bend anymore because it will break."
On how to move Nigeria forward, Tukur said, "We must remove religion from politics. We must accept ourselves as Nigerians and not see ourselves as being from A or B state, or local government. We must ensure that anything, culture or ethnicity that we cannot change we don't bring to the table.”
He also urged Nigerians to endure what they cannot change. “You cannot change yourself from being anHausa man to Ibo man or an Ibo man to a Yoruba man, or a Yoruba man to an Ijaw man. You can't. So forget about that, it is not an issue. So don't bring it on the table.”
He called for ethnicity to be eliminated from Nigerian politics.
“What we must bring into our politics is equity, justice and for us to be our brother’s keeper,” Tukur said. “We can do it. I have told you, God has given you land, water and us, as [a] people that is what He gave to every nation on earth."