Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai has said that the exit from the All Progressive Congress (APC) of members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) who have issued an ultimatum within which to be called for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari over their grievances will not have any impact on Buhari’s electoral fortunes in 2019.
Speaking after a meeting with the president at the presidential villa, Abuja on Tuesday, he said the president will win Kwara, Kano, Sokoto and Adamawa states believed to be the strongholds of the nPDP group.
He recalled that the states had fallen to Buhari in previous elections and 2019 will be not different even if the nPDP actors quit the ruling party.
When told that the group’s exit could harm the president political fortunes, the governor said: “I don’t agree and I want to go back to 2003. What are we talking about? Who are these new PDP people that are threatening? This is Kwara, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Rivers but I don’t think (Rotimi) Amaechi is part of them. So, let’s take these four states, go back to 2003 and check.
“Buhari then under ANPP won in all these four states. Go back to 2007, Buhari won in these four states. Even when (Ibrahim) Shekarau was running as a presidential candidate in 2011, Buhari defeated him in Kano.
“And, I have no doubt in my mind that even if the people threatening to leave, leave, it will have absolutely no impact on the presidential elections. The president will win Sokoto, Kwara and Adamawa easily.
“Kano is already in the bag, I mean if you saw the crowd that welcomed the president without the former governor Kwankwaso, Kano has always been the president’s base.
“To me that is not the issue. The issue is that they have written, they have expressed grievances, some of the grievances are legitimate and should be looked into.
“But to threaten to leave the party is neither here nor there. If they are honest with themselves, they know that President Buhari will win those states with or without them.”
The governor however advised that their grievance should be looked into and where possible, the issues resolved.
He added: “But if you have a grievance, we are a party and politics is a game of addition not subtraction, so we don’t want to loose anyone.
“So, I think those the letters were addressed to ought to study it and look into what is reasonably possible to accommodate them because politics as I said is a game of addition.”
The Kaduna governor who said he was in the presidential villa to brief the president on the conduct of last weekend’s Kaduna state local government election which saw electronic voting adopted for the first time in the country, recommended the device for future elections in the country.
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