- Honourable Hillard Etta said President Buhari will win the 2019 elections
- He noted some of the successes recorded by the administration
- The APC chieftain said Buhari will get 25 per cent of south south votes
The national vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) South-South, Honourable Hillard Etta has expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari will win in 2019.
In an interview with Tribune, the APC chieftain noted that although a lot of thigs have not gone well in the administration, the successes recorded are enough to convince Nigerians to vote for them again.
On the letter written by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida asking Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019, Etta said the results already recorded showed the president deserves a second chance.
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He said: “I am in consonance with the position of my party and the position of this government. So, I will start by thanking former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida for their patriotic duty of writing letters and I will further go on to say, especially to Chief Obasanjo that I also share the sentiment of the Information Minister, who alluded to the fact that the former president may have been too busy to look dispassionately at what this government is doing.
“It was a clarion call on him to take time out from his very busy schedule to properly look at what this government is doing. We know he is a world statesman. I dare to say that if he were to look, he would have a different perspective and a different perception of both president Muhammadu Buhari and the government of APC.
“Now, I am the first to admit, that a lot of work has been done and a lot of work needs to be done. I am not one to deny, from the situation in the country, that things are very difficult but I think that we are just experiencing these difficulties because this is the period of time for change.
“Let me also say that everybody, including us at the hierarchy of the party, is enveloped in this hardship. Nobody has escaped it. So it isn’t as if we are speaking from outside it. No, we are all in it together but I assure you, with the economic policies that have been put in place, both in agriculture, the real economy, the diversification of the Nigerian economy, solid minerals and the attention that we are paying to human capital, in no distant future, Nigerians will begin to see the harvest of this policies and I dare to say that Nigeria will be the better for it.”
Etta expressed confidence that Buhari will win in 2019 saying he would also win 25 per cent of votes in the south.
He said: “We aren’t in a position to say elections are easy, we also cannot say that leadership is easy. It is a difficult call but I will tell you this and I want you to take it to the bank; President Buhari will win in 2019. That will not make challenges in the Nigerian system disappear, but it will provide him with the platform to continue to find solutions to those problems. And if you want me to do the analysis of how he will win the election, I will do it and you will see that regardless of manipulation and the shenanigans of the opposition, President Buhari will continue as president in 2019.
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“First of all, let me tell you that Buhari is the only one that has 12 million votes kept for him.
“In Nigeria. It has expanded but let us even leave it at 12 million votes. Now there is no single state, especially in the South-South and South-East that will not give Buhari 25 per cent or even more to win the presidential election. Remember that Buhari, from 2019 to 2023, will have only four years and the South will take over. The South will not support any man who is coming to do eight years and deny it the opportunity of also occupying the presidency of Nigeria.
"So when you come to where I come from, the South-South, Buhari will win overwhelmingly, not just because four years is shorter than eight years, but because of what he has done in my place. Buhari has done something that no president has done for the people of South-South. Positions that were seen to be out of the reach of South-South, he has given it to us. This is the first time that any president has appointed a South-South person as head of service.
"So the infrastructural development in my area, railway, when even our brother was president of Nigeria we never enjoyed those things. Do you want us to abandon the man who hasn’t abandoned us? So when you put this together with the 12 million votes, there is nobody, whether in the coalition or the PDP, whatever they call themselves. Let all of them even come together, Buhari will continue as president in 2019.”
Meanwhile, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state insisted that nothing can stop President Buhari from seeking a second term in office.
Akeredolu made the statement on Saturday, February 24, at a unification rally held in Akure as part of his one year anniversary in office, Vanguard reports.
Akeredolu, who endorsed the president for second term, said Ondo state was satisfied with the numerous achievement of the Buhari administration and therefore will support his second term ambition.
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Source: Naija.ng