PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated “Together Nigeria’’, a support group for his 2019 election and assured supporters that hard work and loyalty would be adequately rewarded. curiously, the President made a similar promise in 2015 which has not been yet fulfilled.
The event was organised in Abuja on Wednesday by the Buhari Support Organisation made up of celebrities doubles as an advocacy group for the re-election of the president come 2019 presidential elections.
Buhari, in his statement at the event, expressed his gratitude to the group and promised supporters that despite his inability to please everyone in the past years, efforts will be made to reward loyalty and adequately reward hard work.
“I would like to assure you that this time, hard work and loyalty will be rewarded adequately.’’
He said the event calls to mind the political struggle and support he has been enjoying from the group.
“This once again gives me further encouragement, hope, and optimism in our political journey,” Buhari said.
He endorsed the plan put in place by the Buhari Support Organisation to reposition the organisation and strategise towards success in the next election and beyond.
Buhari also expressed his gratitude to the celebrities and urged them to keep doing more towards sensitising the public about the good works of the government. He also appreciated the Nigerian celebrities for their contributions in upgrading the image of Nigeria globally.
“I would like to thank our celebrities for projecting the image of Nigeria globally and your contributions to our entertainment industry,’’ he said.
President Buhari has been criticised by even members of his inner circle for allegedly “forgetting” some of the people that worked for his electoral victory in 2015.
The most recent of the criticisms came from the wife of the President Aisha Buhari, who recently during an event, said that only one or two people were calling the shots in Buhari’s presidency despite the fact that many people worked for his victory.
In 2015, Buhari, then the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) promised, among other things, to “assist Nollywood to fully develop into world class movie industry that can compete effectively with Hollywood and Bollywood in due course”.
“I will support the creative and performing arts with the necessary environment whereby our great entertainers do not end their lives in abject poverty as is currently the case,” he pledged.
But a Nollywood director who spoke with The ICIR on Thursday that many of these promises were not fulfilled by the president, as there was no capacity building for the film practitioners, neither were they supported in terms of grants.
He, however, explained that Nollywood is divided into Kanywood and Nollywood, and that Buhari met with the Kannywood leadership sometime in October.
“He has done nothing to get the support of Nollywood, just as I have not heard of anything he did for Nollywood, so if anybody is supporting him, maybe is on the basis of what they have seen that I myself, I am yet to see,” he said.
