Shehu GarbaThe Presidency has concluded that with some of the by-elections conducted around the country, most of which were won by candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigerians have sent a clear message that they are no longer comfortable with politics of drama and grammar.
Speaking to newsmen today, Monday, on the outcome of the weekend by-elections in Katsina and Bauchi States, senior special assistant to the President on Media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, advised politicians in the opposition to take heed.
“First of all is to say that these decisive victories are indications that clearly, Nigerians have spoken that President Buhari maintain his momentum. That with these victories place Buhari/Osinbajo presidency is in very good stead for next year’s election.
“It is a statement of the fact that the APC will go into election next year with every confidence that the elections will be won and that Nigerians by this statement, will also say that they no longer have time for politics of insult and diversion, mudslinging and ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ politics of the PDP, and equally important is that these election victories are a clear message to the National Assembly that all that Nigerians are interested in is that the business of government should go on.
“That Nigerians are saying that they are not interested in the drama; they are not interested in the grammar, the subterfuge and all of the games that are being played in the National Assembly.
“I think it is appropriate this time to appeal to the National Assembly to be on the same page with President Buhari administration so that we can deliver on all of these things. There are urgent matters that need to be attended to, including matters of shortfall in money supply for the execution of the budget.”
Garba Shehu said that it is clear that from election after election, Nigerians are reposing confidence in the Buhari/Osinbajo presidency.
According to him, each of these election victories is considered to be epic in nature because none of them was an ordinary election.
“We are happy that we have won and on behalf of the president and the acting president, we like to say thank you to Nigerians who continue to repose their confidence in the leadership of the APC administration.
“We also want to thank the leadership of the party at the national level, but equally important, to thank all the party’s apparatchiks deployed to all the campaigns and ensured that all the elections were won handsomely by APC.”
The Presidential spokesmen assured Nigerians that their increasing confidence in the president and the acting president, would gear them to be more determined to leave no stone unturned in order to bring the promised change to Nigerians.
Answering question on bribery and vote buying that characterised some recent elections, Garba Shehu agreed that they contravene the law, advising those who have evidence to report to the law enforcement agencies.
“Thiis is the way to help the country. Secondly I think that it is not the right attitude for a political party, a so called opposition leader, to conduct their affairs like a militant organization.
“A political party cannot be ran like a militant organization. if you have disagreement on the outcome of an election, they know the process and they know it because they abused it before. You can see this is the clear difference of the kind of democracy the APC administration is trying to put in place from what they are used to.
“President Buhari congratulated Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra, and we were happy we came second in the elections. That is the way it is. We lost a Senate seat in Osun, we didn’t try to bring down the roof, and the same thing happened in cross river: did you hear Adams Oshiomhole saying he wants to shoot people. [myad]
