Ahmed Makarfi, the immediate past
Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Caretaker Committee,
has said his party would defeat President Muhammadu Buhari or any other
candidate fielded by the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2019.
Makarfi anchored his claim on the
fact that Buhari’s administration had failed to resolve the prevailing
challenges facing Nigerians, ranging from insecurity, socio-political to
economic challenges.
Speaking with ThisDay on Monday,
Makarfi noted that Nigeria was in the worst terms of insecurity, followed by
the alleged report that the Islamic State in West Africa network had
infiltrated the country and was operating under the cover of cattle herdsmen.
The former Kaduna State Governor
noted that nobody would be talking about deadly activities of the militias if
Buhari’s government was proactive in the area of security.
Makarfi said, “Morality is a
decision of the individual; I would rather look at it from the legal
perspective. From the legal perspective, President Muhammadu Buhari is
qualified to seek re-election. Of course, some people will call on him to
re-contest, while others will tell him not to contest.
“But irrespective of the
candidate the party presents, whether it is Buhari or any other candidate, he
will be roundly defeated by the PDP in 2019. We are waiting for the candidate
to emerge before we present our strategy to defeat such candidate. It is not
the business of our party to determine the candidate of the APC or any other
party.
“You have also mentioned the
socio-political and economic challenges in this country; the federal government
is overwhelmed with the challenges, it has never been worse than this before.
“The security situation is worse,
there are security crises everywhere. Our economy is very bad. The activities
of insurgents are becoming alarming
“We ought to have detected it and
prevented it from happening. That is the duty of any responsive government.
“Again, I don’t know how easy it
was for you to get fuel to come here? As for me it was not easy. I had to wait
for hours to buy fuel at the filling station.
“The prices of foodstuff have
gone very high, and where they are available, where do you get money to buy
them? Basic infrastructure is not available, parents cannot pay their
children’s school fees.
“Yet, people were busy
celebrating the Abuja-Kaduna railway project. Just a few days ago, the train
broke down inside the busy part of town—at the heart of kidnappers’ domain in
Kaduna, and passengers were exposed to danger.
“These killings must stop;
solutions must be provided by the government. Where cattle routes are
available, they need to be retraced. If we need to create new ones we must
create them. Whatever solution that can solve the killings must be applied
immediately.
“We need to go back and find out
why the herdsmen were before now law abiding. For now, because of the
suspicions across the country, you can’t say you are going to set up cattle
reserves in all states.
“But there are some areas you can
do that and the government must do the right thing.’’
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Yes i agree with you sir. We cannot wait for that time.
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