2015: Civil society groups want Atiku to run

Civil society groups, under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society of Nigeria, have urged former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to urgently declare his intention to run for the 2015 presidential election.
Leader of the group, Ambassador Ibn Ahmad, who made the call at the weekend in Abuja, said the country was in dire need of a leader “who is visionary, courageous and proactive, and that is what Atiku Abubakar represents.”
Ahmad said the Coalition took a critical study of the activities of Atiku from his Social Democratic Party (SDP) days through his tenure as vice-president under Obasanjo till date and concluded that “he is the messiah that Nigeria needs at this trying moment in the history of its existence.”
He said the group was mobilising over five million Nigerians to support its call on Atiku and promised to work with other “vibrant political and non-political organisations in Nigeria to embark on house-to-house campaign with the view to guaranteeing victory, come 2015.”
Ahmad said the country was bedevilled with security and social challenges “which are affecting development,” stressing that the group was frantically begging the former vice-president to “come out and save Nigeria from total collapse.”
According to him, Atiku has demonstrated that he is a true democrat, and urged Nigerians to support him for 2015.
He urged the former vice-president to declare his ambition, promising that five million Nigerians would be mobilised for him on the day of his declaration.