2019: Group of Nigerians To Raise N1Bn For Buhari

AISHA ABUBAKAR

Barely few days after some Nigerians and groups jostled to obtain the Presidential Nomination Form and Expression of Interest Form for President Muhammadu Buhari, which NCAN won the race eventually by outsmarting many Nigerians and groups to get. Now as President Buhari prepares for party primaries, many Nigerians and groups have indicated interests and aligned to fund President Muhammadu Buhari’s primaries with a crowd fundraising target of one billion naira.

The crowd fundraising target of One Billion Naira is tagged “Nigerians Fund PMB 2019 Primaries” and is to be coordinated by Buhari 2019 Door to Door Ambassadors. According to Chris Kohol, the Director General of the coordinating organisation, the crowd funding campaign is initiated by good & patriotic Nigerians to appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari’s personality and sterling leadership achievements.

Buhari 2019 Door-To-Door Ambassadors is a voluntary socio-political organisation birthed chiefly to promote and propagate President Muhammadu Buhari’s sterling administrative achievements through door-to-door outreach, campaigns and other innovative and strategic means towards ensuring victory for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general elections. The organisation currently has over 4 million PVC carrying members across the country just within 5 months of its establishment and target 37 million members across 36 States and FCT as the organisation embark on full membership mobilisation early next month.

According to an official statement released by the coordinating organisation, the crowd fundraising targets One Billion Naira for President Muhammadu Buhari’s primaries and will start from Monday 10th September, 2018, by 10am and end on Monday 17th September, 2018, by 7pm. Channels of the crowd funding includes online payment, bank transfers/deposits and short code SMS.

The Director General of Buhari 2019 Door to Door Ambassadors, Chris Kohol, disclosed that the crowd fundraising exercise will be highly transparent as Economic & Financial Crime Commission (EFFC), the Department of State Services (DSS), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization 2019 and Buhari Support Organizations (BSO) have been notified of the crowd funding exercise and have been invited to monitor and audit the One Billion Naira crowd funding project for President Muhammadu Buhari, making it highly transparent and the first of its kind in Nigeria.

“President Muhammadu Buhari as a man of integrity and honour has said severally and demonstrated many times that he will not touch any Kobo of the public funds unlike some past leaders to facilitate his reelection bid, hence Nigerians are keen to crowd fund One Billion Naira for his Presidential primaries to enable him apply the funds to campaign transportation/logistics, campaign materials, non-volunteers salaries, media, advertisement and other key expenses during the Presidential primaries and convention” Chris Kohol said.

He further stated that the planned gesture for President Buhari is as a result of his good sterling leadership achievements evident in the areas of security, agriculture, economy, anti-corruption war, massive infrastructural development among others.

He hinted that the donated funds will be presented to President Buhari on 18th September, 2018, by about 37 delegate donors representing the huge numbers of donors and each state of the federation.

It would be recalled that in 2008 President Barack Obama raised about 778,642,962 for his Presidential campaign and in 2012 again he raised over one billion US dollars for his reelection campaign. The coordinating group said that they hope to see how President Buhari matches President Obama’s record.