Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the six North-east states, led by their state governors and National Assembly members, met in Bauchi on Saturday to strategise for what they called a total victory for their presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections, Muhammadu Buhari.
APC governs four of the six states in the geo-political zone where Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr Buhari’s top challenger comes from. APC governs Adamawa, Bauchi. Borno and Yobe while Gombe and Taraba states are run by the PDP.
The APC leaders said defeating Mr Abubakar has become a task they must accomplish. Mr. Abubakar is from Adamawa, one of the six states in the zone.
Mr Abubakar, one of the richest politicians in northern Nigeria, was never known to have made any serious mileage in most of his political outings since 1999 when he won the Adamawa State governorship, before he was later picked as running mate to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The political fortunes of Mr. Abubakar, who now holds the traditional title of Waziri (vizier) of Adamawa, since 2011 continued to nose dive until 2018.
For the first time in his political career, he has a chance to contest the presidential election on the platform of the PDP.
The former vice president, who vied for the APC ticket in 2015 but lost to President Buhari, will now be slogging it out with an incumbent he partly assisted to power.
Despite the labrynths of uncleared corruption charges against him, many Nigerians still see his candidacy as a big threat to President Buhari’s second term bid.
Speaking at the APC zonal stakeholders’ meeting in Bauchi, the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, said Mr Abubakar’s candidature will not deny Mr Buhari his most deserved popular votes in the Northeast.
“The Northeast is a Buhari territory; and he is the single kinetic entity in the Northeast political firmament, and by God’s will his reelection is almost a forgone conclusion.
“We wish the PDP candidate well, but we must not forget the fact that politics is local and is driven by local issues and President Buhari has mostly been responding to our local needs more than anyone else.
“And believe me, Buhari will again ride on another victory horse coming from the Northeast.”
The governor said his confidence in Mr Buhari’s victory was driven by historical facts.
“We must remember that in Borno State back in 2015, we gave Buhari, as the APC candidate, 97.3 percent of the total votes cast in the state.
“And certainly we are going to repeat the feat insha Allah. And so also are other states of the zone.
“It is not a subject of dispute but a question of time that Buhari will be resoundingly reelected insha Allah.
“As far as Nigerians are concerned, Buhari has done extremely well. Look at the Mambila hydro power project. He met the country in a mess and he came to fix it. Even in the security arena, though there are some challenges; but we must be fair to him. When you juxtapose the state of affairs four years ago and what is obtained now we have to give it to Buhari. Some years ago, about 22 local government areas were under the control of Boko Haram. But today the challenges have subsided.”
A senator, Muhammed Ndume, who also spoke to PREMIUM TIMES, said Mr Buhari and the APC were confident of victory come 2019 even though he quickly added that “we are mindful of the fact that you don’t take even your weakest opponent for granted.”
He said as a way forward for the APC, the party had during the stakeholders meeting constituted a reconciliation committee to address grievances that arose from the party’s primaries across the country.
“That’s why we are doing everything to ensure that we resolve our internal scuffles on time so that we can face the bigger fight ahead 2019.
“We all know that the PDP presidential candidate is an aggressive politician, and in recent times we can say he is also a desperate politician. So we don’t want to take anything for granted,” he said.
The Adamawa State Governor, Jibrilla Bindow, told the APC gathering in Bauchi that the zone must do everything in its powers to ensure his kinsman is defeated.
“We cannot pretend not to know the capacity of Atiku Abubakar as a crafty politician who can go extra mile to achieve his goals,” he said.
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