For Questions, Enquiries, 
President should forget 2019 –Shettima, Magaji
Obasanjo’s worries
Jonathan’s regrets
‘Economy’ll determine who wins’
As the race for the 2019 presidential election gains momentum, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s expression of interest to seek re-election, there are indications that Buhari may not command the massive support he received previously from his northern kinsmen as some opinion leaders in the North have been disappointed with his level of performance in the current mandate.
It was gathered that a number of key political actors in the region were unhappy with Buhari for allegedly squandering the goodwill of the people through his lacklustre performance on key areas of governance after he raised the hopes of the masses for a better society through his change mantra. A former federal lawmaker, Hon. Yusuf Datti-Baba Ahmed, has openly declared that the incumbent President (Buhari) was not re- electable in 2019.
Ahmed, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), last week. Ahmed was a member of the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007 and was later elected to the Senate on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011. The CPC was one of the legacy parties that merged to firm the APC in 2014.
In explaining his defection to the opposition party, Ahmed said Buhari does not deserve to be given another mandate because his government has not only been characterised by incompetence and corruption, but also deception of the people. Ahmed said he left the APC because the Muhammadu Buhari administration has shown that it lacked the much touted integrity and transparency upon which it rode to power, stressing that whereas the government claims to be fighting corruption, it had failed to explain to Nigerians the source of the huge funds used during its electioneering campaigns in 2015.
He accused the APC of lacking principle and vision as well as any concrete plans for Nigeria. Ahmed had on Thursday, November 29, tendered a letter of resignation to the Chairman of APC in Tudun Wada Ward, Zaria Local Government Area, Kaduna State. “Buhari’s government is incompetent and corrupt…the government is lying. The government of Buhari was established by looted funds and over 80 per cent are from the PDP. His so called fight against corruption is a ruse,” Ahmed was quoted to have said. The ex-lawmaker resigned days after former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, left the ruling party.
There are also reports that a former Governor of Kano State, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has been under intense pressure from his teeming supporters to leave the APC and seek the actualisation of his political dreams in another political party. Though APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and some governors elected on the platform of the party have endorsed Buhari for a second term in office, some northerners like Mauzu Magaji, a chieftain of the party in Kano State, and President of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima, had told the President to forget 2019. Magaji said recent political dynamics have shown that the President can no longer cope, hence the need to honourably step aside for a younger politician.
He said: “Honestly, if you ask me, l will say that the President has given so much to this country and he has done so much within his coming into the democratic space that the limitations that we have highlighted now have the potential to ruin his integrity and reputations if he continues this way.” Similarly, Afenifere spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with Sunday Telegraph over the weekend, said Nigerians whom Buhari has disappointed will decide his fate. “The jury is out there.
The Nigerian people will de termine if the promises made in 2015 have been fulfilled or not. “Quite a lot of promises were made by the APC before Nigerians voted for them: to create three million jobs per year. We need to know whether those jobs have been created; they said they will give a meal to every pupil per day. We want to know whether our children have been fed in our schools; they promised to build refineries, we need to know whether we are not importing fuels anymore and that our refineries are in full operation; they promised to end Boko Haram activities, but the sect is now taking territories again. “They said they are going to wipe out corruption but we are seeing Mainagate, Babachir gate and different scandals per day.
“It will be left for the Nigerian people to assess what has been fulfilled in the promise made to them in 2015 from which they cast their votes and to see whether there is any basis to return the same party to power come 2019,” he said. Yerima Shettima also said Buhari and the APC have reneged on their promises to Nigerians.
“Everything they promised during the campaign and in their manifesto. The reason why everybody sought for change was that we thought this government will fight corruption tooth and nail without considering whosoever is involved. But we have now realized that the fight against corruption has become selective. Then two, the issue of insurgency, leave it or take it, to us, as laymen this battle is not over. We cannot or the government cannot justify the fact that we told Nigerians that the fight against insurgency is over.
“The third one on the campaign was the issue of power. We were told during the campaign that immediately they resume office, fuel price would go down to N40 per litre from N97 per litre. Now, a government that promised this rather than keep to its promise raised the price astronomically. Now, it is between 70 and 80 per cent increase.
That is giving us a lot of concern,” he said. However, another former member of the House of Representatives and ardent critic of the Buhari government, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has blamed the growing unpopularity of President Buhari across the country on the internal contradictions within the APC and the poor performance of his government in the last two and a half years. Mohammed however, believes that Buhari could still have his mandate renewed if the opposition political parties were unable to present a candidate more popular than Buhari in the forthcoming elections.
“The President has not done enough to retain the empathy or sympathy of those who supported him in 2015. If he continues to go the way he is going, I am not sure those who believe they can or are speaking for the North will necessarily deliver the North for him and he cannot deliver it himself. It is because a lot is happening within the APC itself and the Presidency is not performing and that is why we have problems.
However, those who imagine that the North can be taken for granted by a politician or any northerner, are in for a surprise because the North can make a drastic decision and once they do, there is nothing a Buhari or an Atiku can do,” he said.
Mohammed, who dismissed the exit of Atiku Abubakar from the APC as a non-issue, said the chances of the former Vice President were limited as long as Buhari is on the ballot.
According to Mohammed, not even the campaign for restructuring which Atiku has been championing would be able to win him votes when the chips are down.
“For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Atiku sticks to the restructuring sloganeering. I don’t see that helping his cause unless that when he flies the kite, it will successfully land somewhere. As far as I am concerned, those who are supporting the sloganeering of restructuring which has not been properly defined, are wasting their time. Some of them have a culture of being deceitful throughout their history in Nigeria. If they want to go ahead with their campaigns for restructuring, they can continue and lets see what happens. If Atiku believes that by making himself one issue candidate, he will win, then let him go ahead and do so.
“But let me tell you , there isn’t the necessary critical mass of people who are so convinced about the so called restructuring to make it the defining consideration in the voting pattern. If you don’t believe what I am saying, then let’s go and check. How many people in the South East and South South believe in it to the extent that they will come and vote on it.
These are the two regions where the clamour for restructuring has been so loud and both regions are involved in what I call a marriage of convenience for now. In my years of politics, I have seen several of these political marriages and marriages of convenience which have collapsed into mutual recrimination – each one accusing the other one and saying he was responsible for whatever happened to them. If you are a politician and you want to make it an issue, I will advise you don’t because it is too much of a risk. Those who really go to register and queue up to vote don’t care a hoot about restructuring.
So let’s see how they will win election through restructuring. Even though some of the APC governors are going into restructuring as a matter of opportunism, so that they cannot be accused of being nonchalant towards the issue, restructuring cannot be the issue in the next elections,” he said.
“So what we are going to do is to vote not on actual performance for there is nothing to talk about in the PDP and APC but what party can take the trouble in explaining our economic problems and tell us in a very rational manner how we can tackle these challenges. How do we move out of the woods as far as the economy is concerned!,” he said. The APC is said to be currently having crises in many states in the North, including Kano, which singlehandedly delivered two million votes for Buhari in 2015.
Though still in the party, former governor, Senator Musa Kwankwaso, is nursing presidential ambition. The situation is not any better in Kaduna that gave Buhari about the same number of votes. Only Sokoto chapter of the party enjoys near absolute, even as Katsina is said to be having grave yard peace.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is said to be worried about Buhari’s not too impressive performance on the economy, despite the President’s marginal success in fighting corruption and impressive war on Boko Haram. Obasanjo, who has practically assumed a kingmaker or deity-like status in the polity was instrumental in the election of three successive Presidents, who performance has been less than satisfactory.
“He installed Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, whom he and down to endorse the Buhari. Looking back, the unimpressive performance of these people has been a source of concern to him,” a political leader said. Jonathan who is fully aware of the role Obasanjo could play had advised Atiku against calling the bluff of his former boss as that could be disastrous to his political aspirations in 2019.
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