Governor of Borno state, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, has laughed at the permutation by social media over the projection that the Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and candidates of other parties will get near victory in the 2019 Presidential election.
Kashi Settiman, who spoke to news men today, Wednesday in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, said: “it is one thing to pontificate on the social media and not what is on the ground as the reality.”
According to him, the next year’s Presidential election is already a foregone conclusion in favour of the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The Presidential election is almost a foregone conclusion by the grace of God. For my knowledge of Nigerian politics; I have been in the business of politics for the past twenty years and I know how the Nigerian political terrain works.
“2019 is going to be different from that of 2015. In 2015, candidate Buhari got 169,000 votes in the whole of the South-east which was what he got in Maiduguri metropolis. But in 2019, the game has changed.
“Major players in the south-east sub region have joined the APC fold. Emmanuel Uduaghan was the man who delivered 1.4 million votes to Jonathan in 2015 and wherever you see Emmanuel Uduaghan there James Ibori is not far off. And these are in the APC. All the three Senators in Rivers state are in the APC. The man who generated 1.3 votes for Jonathan in Akwa Ibom is now in APC.
The governor debunk the notion that the mammoth crowd that received President Buhari in Miaduguri was rented, adding: “He (Buhari) came with the shortest of notices. How could we have hired such a large crowd?
“This is a Buhari country. He’s the single kinetic figure in Borno political firmament. It is not an issue of dispute; this is a Buhari country. He has a tight grip over the people on this side.”
