Muhammadu Buhari remains
electorally unbeatable with his attachment to the people unwavering, despite
recriminations by
the elite class on social and conventional media, Governor
Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said. El-Rufai Governor El-Rufai, who is
also Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Committee on Restructuring,
also affirmed President Buhari’s endorsement of the committee’s recommendations
on restructuring, saying the President was ready to give up his powers if it
would help to move the country forward. Governor El-Rufai’s claim of Buhari’s
endorsement of the report was immediately pooh-poohed by the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, which challenged the governor and the APC to forward the committee
report to the National Assembly. The PDP in its response said Nigerians, having
been once deceived by the lies and propaganda of the APC, would not be taken in
for a second time. Affirming the president’s electoral invincibility, El-Rufai
in an interview on Channels Television said: “I do not have any doubt in my
mind that we are going to win the next elections; not only in the centre but we
are going to preserve our 24 states, and even more,” he said. APC’ll win in
2019 Insisting that the president remained popular despite insinuations to the
contrary in conventional and social media platforms, the governor said: “We are
not saying this foolishly; this is scientific. We are monitoring the pulse of
Nigerians, not the pulse of a section of Nigerians and I am confident that we
are going to win the 2019 elections. “We know the pulse of the nation, we know
where we are losing support, we know where we are gaining support; I have no
doubt in my mind that we are going to win the 2019 elections. “There are two
pulses of Nigerians – there is the pulse of the Nigerian elites which is the
noise that you hear in the media, the social media and so on; then there is the
pulse of the people. “If you remember how many people came out to welcome
President Buhari in Kano, then you will know that there are two Nigerias.”
Affirming the President’s endorsement of the APC Committee report on
restructuring, El-Rufai said the President will sacrifice any of his powers
if necessary, to move the country
forward. The committee report The El-Rufai-led committee on restructuring had,
among others recommended the devolution of powers from the Federal Government
to the states, the establishment of state police, resource control among
others. The committee in its 10-point recommendation had specifically called
for the movement of the following items from the exclusive list to the
concurrent list. The items so recommended to be moved are Foods, Drugs, Poison,
Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances; Fingerprints and Identification of
Criminal Records; Registration of Business names; Labour; Mines and Minerals,
including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas; Police;
Prisons; Public Holidays (to be classified as National Public Holidays and
State Public Holidays); Railways and Stamp Duties. Still on the President’s
endorsement of the proposals, El-Rufai said:
“He was excited. He was very pleased, and he said he fully supports what
we have done and that he is looking forward to the party officially
transmitting it to him for his necessary action. “President Buhari is not
concerned about his personal power; he is concerned about Nigeria making
progress. Buhari ready to give up power, if... “If giving up power will make
Nigeria progress, he will give all of it up. Not just part of it, but all of
it. This is the real Buhari that many people don’t know. It is the most
comprehensive review of this subject matter ever in Nigeria’s history. “APC’s
true federalism committee differs from other confabs in at least two ways;
first, previous confabs were conclaves of the elite. The government picks who
goes there, they decide who participates, and it is mostly old people with a
sprinkle of a few women. Our committee opened the space for everyone. “More
than one-third of the membership of our committee were women. More than a
quarter of the membership were young people, below the age of 40. It was a very
broad range of consultation. Many opposition figures have expressed support for
the report.
We have proposed more than 20 alterations to the constitution.
Everything we did is in the best interest of Nigeria. “So, this is the first
time that a platform has been given to young people and women and those that
are vulnerable to give their voices to what shape of the federation they want
to see. Because old people like me, 50, 60, 70 cannot define the future for
Nigerian youth below the age of 40. What young women and our people see is
completely different from what old people see.” On Obasanjo’s advice to Buhari
The Kaduna State governor, however, drew back from commenting on President
Olusegun Obasanjo’s missive to President Buhari, saying he had not fully read
the special statement issued by Obasanjo last Tuesday. “I have not. It is too
long. I am very busy, but I got the gist of it. President Obasanjo is a
Nigerian, he is a patriot, and he is entitled to his opinion just like every
other Nigerian,” he said. “The Presidency has issued a response, the party has
issued a response, and that closes the matter. We are moving on. I believe that
President Buhari is the one that will advance the interest of Nigeria and the
stability of the country.” The governor also dismissed insinuations that his
vociferous support for a second term for the President was because he wanted to
ride on his coat-tail for his own second term. “I believe that it is in the
overall interest of our party and the stability of Nigeria; It is not because I
stand to gain or lose anything. But it is because in everything I’ve done since
I got into public service, for me the interest of Nigeria comes first. “God has
given me everything through the instrumentality of this country – I don’t need
anything as a person but what I need is to see a country that is making
progress, that is stable and leave a legacy for our children to build on it,”
he added. APC taking
Nigeria on
second false ride — PDP Governor El-Rufai’s
claim on Buhari’s readiness to implement the APC Committee report on restructuring
was, however, tackled by the PDP. Speaking through its National Publicity
Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondinyan, the party said: “They think that they can
take Nigerians on a second ride after they dropped them on a land of fantasy.
But Nigerians are aware and are awake to their false rides and fantasy and
there can never be a repeat of it. “If El-Rufai is saying that Buhari believes
in restructuring, we challenge and the Federal Government to pick up a copy of
the 2014 National Conference report and take it to the National Assembly for
amendment into the 1999 Constitution as amended. But the unfortunate thing is
that in their usual game, they are telling Nigerians what they do not believe.
“They still have between now and February, 2019 to showcase to Nigerians that
they believe in restructuring. And the Senate and the House of Representatives
members will be sitting tomorrow, Tuesday, January 30, 2018 (today). So we
challenge them to take a copy either to a joint committee of the National
Assembly or to deliver to each chamber. “There is no way making post-election
promises of 2019; they should do it now. Now is the time to do it. We have
always told the APC Federal Government that deceit, lies and propaganda will
help you win election but it cannot sustain them,” he said.
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