Buhari Is Not An Extremist – Ex U.S. Ambassador

John Campbell, a former US ambassador to Nigeria, now with
the Council on Foreign Relations has come to the defence of
Gen mohammadu Buhari, the presidential aspirant of the APC,
whom the opposition have labelled as an extremist.
According to reports on Vanguard, Cambell noted that PDP
efforts to brand Buhari as an extremist devoted to Islamic law
have also been successful.
READ ALSO : Presidential Debate: Buhari Opts For Town Hall
Meetings
The former envoy said "It is grossly unfair. I know him. He is
not an extremist but these things resonate."
Buhari, a former army general who led a military government for
20 months from December 1983, is hardly the dream candidate
for many in the south, experts say.
Some southerners have an entrenched antipathy towards
Muslims from the Hausa ethnic group, members of which
plundered the country as military rulers through much of the
1980s and 1990s.
The PDP have harped on this as a campaign strategy, claiming
the APC, Presidential Flag-bearer and former military dictator,
is obviously a hard sell for his party, not only as a Muslim
extremist, who treats issues on religions lines, but his
diminishing, absurd and out-modeled leadership qualities that
can no longer stand the test of time.
These assertions according to Vanguard are untrue. Some have
argued that parties spend too much effort striving for ethno-
religious balance, noting that the most popular presidential
ticket since independence in 1960 — the 1993 campaign of the
Social Democratic Party — contained two Muslims.
Moshood Abiola and running mate Baba Gana Kingibe were
easily on track to win the polls before military ruler Ibrahim
Babangida nullified the vote.
Many commentators were clamouring for popular Lagos state
governor Babatunde Fashola, a Muslim, to head the APC ticket
in 2015, but the party decided it needed a Hausa candidate to
defeat Jonathan.
READ ALSO: 500 APC Members Defect To The PDP
Religion has featured prominently in the 2015 election
campaigns.
It would be recalled that Pastor Tunde Bakare recently criticised
CAN and PFN for endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan for the
14 February presidential election at the expense of one of their
own, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the running mate to the All
Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate,
Muhammadu Buhari.