Monarchs vow to ensure Buhari’s re-election as Masari says ‘Katsina elders will soon reply Obasanjo’s letter’

The Emir of Maradun in Zamfara State, Alhaji Garba Tambari, says some traditional rulers across the country have resolved to ensure the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Tambari stated this when he fielded questions from newsmen after paying a condolence visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, on Sunday.
According to the Emir, all citizens who wish Nigeria well must support the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari if he finally decides to seek renewal of his electoral mandate in 2019.
Buhari, who is on five-day private visit to his home country, Daura, is yet to make any official pronouncement on whether he will seek re-election or not.
However, the Emir maintained that all citizens, who wished Nigeria well, must support the re-election of the President “if he finally decides to seek renewal of his electoral mandate in 2019”.
“Anybody who wishes this country good, who wishes this country well, will want Mr President to continue after 2019. So, we wish he will continue by the grace of God,’’ he said.
The Emir stated that the re-election of the President in 2019 would ensure continuity in governance as the Buhari administration had recorded remarkable successes in the areas of security and fighting corruption and revitalisation of the economy.
Tambari, who said he was in Daura on a solidarity visit to the President, lauded him for his selfless service to the country.
He disclosed that the President had assured to tackle the problem of insecurity in some parts of Zamfara.
Buhari had on Friday condemned Thursday’s massacre of innocent persons in Birane village in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara by gunmen suspected to be cattle rustlers.
The President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Friday, commiserated with families of the victims of the ”heinous and inhuman attacks on defenceless citizens”.
He also directed security agencies to immediately mobilise and deploy their personnel to the vulnerable areas of the state, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to face the full wrath of the law.
Buhari also on Sunday met with members of Katsina Citizens’ Forum in Daura.
Speaking to newsmen on behalf of members of the forum after the closed door meeting, Governor Aminu Masari said they were in Daura to condole with the President over the death of his two relatives.
He said the forum would soon issue an advertorial on the letter written to President Buhari by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“The elders forum will consider the possibility of replying the recent letter by President Olusegun Obasanjo to Buhari.
“We intend to place an advertorial in the national dailies to respond to the issues he raised,” Masari told newsmen, shortly after he led the elders on a condolence visit to Buhari in Daura.
Obasanjo, in the letter, assessed the performance of the President since he assumed office on May 29, 2015 and advised him to step down in 2019.
But Masari, who did not state the views of the elders on the issues raised by Obasanjo, said that the forum had studied the letter and would respond to its contents.
“The response will not be long in coming; it will be very soon,” he said.
Masari said that the elders were in Daura to condole Buhari over the death of his two sisters – Hajiya Aisha Mamman and Hajiya Halima Dauda – and described their demise as “very saddening”.
“We came to formally commiserate with the President and also pray for the repose of the souls of the deceased.
“We also told the President to accept the development as destined by the Almighty,” he said.
Among the elders who condoled the President were Justice Mamman Nasir (rtd), Brig-Gen Ahmed Daku (rtd), Justice Sadiq Mahuta and Alhaji Dahiru Mangal.
Others included the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Farouk Umar, and traditional title holders, among others.