The lawmaker representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano in the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has given reasons President Muhammadu Buhari will not lose the 2019 election amid the gale of defections that hit the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, recently.
The former Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, said as long as the APC presents Buhari as its presidential candidate, victory was certain.
“If the APC was presenting another candidate other than President Buhari, I would have been a bit jittery but there is this consensus within the party and we are just waiting for the timetable just to do the formalities and adopt Buhari as the candidate.
“With Mr. President as the candidate of the APC, we are not threatened by all the people leaving the party,” Jibrin said in an interview with journalists in Abuja.
He said, “For many reasons, we are so lucky that we have Comrade Adams Oshiomole as the chairman of the party. He has been doing extremely well, he has been reaching out to everyone, holding a series of meetings, and persuading people to stay.
“During election period, these problems are normal. It is not unique to APC alone, as that was the case in 2007, 2011, and 2015. All the time, when there is a buildup to the general elections you have these kind of problems.
“To say that the APC would disintegrate or crumble is absolutely false. As people are going, people are also coming in. But when people leave the ruling party, they make it a big news.
“A lot of other people from the opposition are coming in. At the moment, not less than four to five PDP governors are working in a cross-party arrangement, to support the APC.
“There have been a lot of inflow from the South-East. You have people like Orji Uzo Kalu and a lot of prominent people in the South-East that are coming.
“They also understand that it is an opportunity for the South-East to put up a good show for the APC and stand a chance of competing for the presidency after Buhari’s second term. So, I am very confident that APC isn’t going to confront any challenge.
“There are certain things that will help the APC to retain power and ensure that President Buhari wins.
“He has massive electoral value and his stronghold states are still there like Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Plateau, Kogi, and of course the South-West is a no-go area.
“This is because they have positioned themselves to take the presidency in 2023 so they don’t want to make any mistake about that. Do you hear any party making any noise in the South-West?
“Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, and Oyo are all for Buhari. Edo is already there. In Delta, we are making a significant move and very soon, you would hear a lot of people that would decamp to the APC.
“You know we lost Rivers State just by the whiskers, we have Senators, we have people like Rotimi Amaechi and Dakuku Peterside and I can assure you that Rivers would also come home. The APC is standing firm and President Buhari is also standing firm.”
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