President Muhammadu Buhari will
still defeat the opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, despite his
endorsement and open support by former President Olusegun Obsanjo, Minister of
Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, boasted on Monday.
Mohammed, who briefed the media
on current developments in the polity, also absolved President Buhari of any
wrongdoing in rejecting the latest version of the Electoral Bill and returning
it to the National Assembly, asking Nigerians to accept the reasons advanced by
him for not assenting to the bill in good faith and in the national interest.
The minister pointed out that
while Obasanjo was entitled to support Atiku or any other candidate of his
choice, Buhari had done enough to garner the overwhelming support of Nigerians
to roundly defeat Atiku in the forthcoming contest.
The minister said: “With due
respect to Obasanjo, it is his fundamental right to support any candidate of
his choice and we hereby encourage and urge him to go all out and campaign
vigorously for Atiku Abubakar and we wish him the best of luck in his choice
and political pursuit. But we assure him that his candidate will be roundly and
comprehensively defeated by Buhari.
“We want to place it on record
that the Buhari government has done the best for this country in virtually all
facets of governance and for this reason, we believe strongly that we have
enough achievements to flaunt and win the forthcoming election with ease. We
have it on record that the opposition is already jittery of Buhari’s imminent
victory and has consequently resorted to using fake news to blackmail the
president and our party in order to give excuse for the looming defeat.
One of the fake news being
propagated by the opposition, which is now very confused, is that Buhari cannot
speak Fulfulde, his mother tongue and cannot open the main door to his
conference room in the Presidential Villa having undergone cloning, despite
having openly been made clear that there was nothing like that. This is clearly
the fake news and handiwork of the opposition in serious distress and
confusion.
“It is not true that Buhari has
not been able to access his main office as a result of being cloned. Anybody
who says so is a purveyor of fake news and should be ignored. Let this campaign
be issue-based and not on sentiments, silly and idiotic fake news.
“But I want to put the media on
the alert that as we approach the election, they should be more cautious as the
opposition is determined to dish out more and more fake news in order to
confuse them and create tension and dissonance in the system all in their
desperate bid the win the election. They know they have nothing to offer the Nigerian
people,” he pleaded.
On the electoral bill, Mohammed
asked Nigerians to accept the reasons given by Buhari as enough justification
for his rejection of the proposed amendments, but declined to say what the
implications would be on the conduct of the elections.
The minister said the Presidency
would await the decision on the rejected electoral bill before commenting
further on the matter, adding that the constitution of Nigeria was very clear
on what each arm of government is expected to do concerning the enactment or
rejection of any bill.
He said, “We believe Mr.
President has the prerogative to do what he has done by rejecting assent to the
electoral bill. Each arm of government must guard jealously its independence.
Let us wait for the National Assembly’s next line of action on the electoral
bill,” Mohammed said.
Asked whether Buhari would be
ready to take up the challenge of engaging his main rival, Atiku Abubakar, in a
presidential debate, Mr. Mohammed declined to be specific, arguing that it was
the president’s prerogative to decide if he wanted to do so or not. He said
there was no law compelling the president to engage in any debate as a
condition for contesting election in Nigeria.
The minister also defended the
disbursement of billions of money by the Presidency to Nigerian traders under
the Trademoni scheme, which the opposition has described as an indirect way of
‘vote-buying’.
The minister argued that the
money being given to the traders was part of a larger policy of the
administration under the Social Investment Programme, which is given to all
Nigerians irrespective of political leanings.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
The God and Possessor of heaven and earth will not give the throne of Nigeria to anyone who will authorize, support, in any way, or approve the killing of innocent citizens neither will He give it to any deceiver who wants to use unsuspecting Nigerians get to the throne and start dealing with them. Nigeria belongs to Jesus and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
ReplyDeleteBuhari's government should stop deceiving themselves because Nigerians are ready with their PVC no matter APC magomago, you cannot win rather you will be flush out into swamping area, we tired of you, stop boasting for nothing
ReplyDeleteBuhari even your rigging and arm robbing strategies will not save you and your party in 2019 enough of your deceit and many lies without end
ReplyDeleteAPC is full of noise, they are just trying to see they stay back so that all their evil and havoc they have done to Nigerians will not be expose but, God Almighty will disappoint you and stop putting your mind in Redeem people are hungry you are not the one feeding them, people have really suffer set back under your regime but all you know is to blame your opposition, I beg go jo we are tire of APC government
ReplyDeleteGod Almighty will remove you Buhari, because you are not stronger than God
ReplyDeleteNigerians cannot go back to Egypt anymore, Buhari please time up, go in 2019
ReplyDeleteBuhari you mixed it your policy is not for working at all rather took us six years backward
ReplyDelete