Presidency: Buhari won’t be alone in 2019

A presidential spokesperson, Malam Garba Shehu, has dismissed suggestions that the masses will leave President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 as unfounded and utterly ridiculous, and asserted that ordinary Nigerians are the backbone of his mandate and the only reason he ran for the office is to protect them against the rapacious merchants of corruption, who have held Nigeria back for decades.
Reacting to allegations by a former CPC member, Alhaji Buba Galadima, that Buhari would be abandoned by the people in 2019, Garba, a Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, said Galadima’s calculation and prediction is utterly confused and misleading.
He said the masses are solidly behind Buhari because he is not stealing their money and their future, that the President’s enormous goodwill remains ever strong because the people are convinced the President is acting in their best interest, despite the temporary unintended consequences of reforms.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is far from isolation. He enjoys a very strategic relationship with ordinary Nigerians. This relationship is as solid as the proverbial rock. If Buba Galadima thinks that because he has no role and no job in this government, that means the president is isolated, he is putting himself up to ridicule. Galadima cannot speak for the masses as far as their steadfast loyalty to Buhari is concerned”.
While acknowledging that Galadima was entitled to advance his own political agenda, Garba said Galadima didn’t have the right to decide for ordinary voters.
Garba recalled that Galadima’s disagreement with President Buhari was based on principle.
He explained that Buhari is committed to level playing field and would not want anyone to link his name to injustice.
The presidential media aide said Galadima’s disagreement with Buhari started in 2011 when a group within the party, orchestrated an organisational mess by which the CPC embarked on the imposition and substitution of candidates for cash payments at the expense of those duly and democratically elected.
He said Buhari was embarrassed by the incidents and complaints about the imposition and substitution of candidates, adding that he, as a democrat, would not suppress the will of the people to please selfish interests.
“Consequently, he dispensed with the service, such as they are, of Buba Galadima, ran and won the 2015 elections without them. Let Buba Galadima go to his constituency, stand for election and see what will happen to him”, concluded Garba.