Dele Ogbodo
Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Director of Strategic Communications, President Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign has said
that the gale of latest defections by some National Assembly members and the Governor of Benue State will not harm the re-election of President Buhari in the 2019 general elections.
He said in a statement on Sunday night: “This would even be so if the much-rumoured two more Governors also defect from the APC. The President won with large margins in the past in some States without the support of majority of the politicians from those States who moved recently to join the opposition party. Also, we are all witnessing the significant gains Mr. President is making in several places where he lost in the past, notably in the south-south and south-east.
On why the defection will not have negative impact, he said, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Yobe and Niger, with over 30 million registered voters, are States the President had consistently won with considerable large margins in past elections, especially in 2011 and 2015, adding that the feat was achieved despite the fact that most of those States were being controlled by political parties other than his own.
“In 2011, when the President was in CPC, despite being States with sitting opposition Governors, National Assembly Members, State Assembly Members and Local Government Chairmen, the President posted close to eleven million votes against all odds, defeating all his rivals in these twelve States mentioned above.
“In 2015 despite the majority of these States being in opposition after the merger that formed the APC, the President posted close to eleven million votes again in these States with PDP not scoring up to twenty percent of the votes in most of these States. It is instructive that in these election cycles there were presidential candidates of Northern extraction (e.g Shekarau and Ribadu in 2011). Besides, Kaduna had a sitting Vice President in both elections.”
According to him, any defection within these States would have little or no consequence on Buhari’s chances as he had always won those States, irrespective of the Party in power in those States.
Concerning Kano State, he added: “For example in the much-touted Kano, in the 2011 election, Buhari scored 1,624,543) votes as CPC candidate, while in 2015, he had 1,903,999 votes as APC candidate.”
The vote difference of about 280,000 votes, Keyamo averred may be attributed to elements of ANPP, negligible ACN and Senator Kwakwanso, then governor of the State that came into APC.
He said, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi, Adamawa and Benue, are States the president lost in 2011 but won in 2015, stressing that the 5 south-western states have registered voters strength of more than 14 million out of the about 20 million voters in these nine States.
Keyamo stressed: “Today, those five states are being controlled by the APC. Ekiti will join before the 2019 election after Governor Kayode Fayemi is sworn in for a second term in office. All the political gladiators in those south-western states that helped to tilt the election in favour of the President in 2015 are still solidly with him and more have joined.
“The entire defunct ACN structures that moved into APC are solidly behind the President. In terms of defections in the western states, the Party has gained more than it has lost as the likes of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Senator (Mrs) Fatima Raji-Rasaki, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Senator Gbenga Kaka, former Governor Adebayo Akala, to mention a few, are now with APC. To underscore the rising profile of the Party in these States, the people of Ondo State and Ekiti State decided to entrust their States in the hands of the APC by voting out the previous PDP governments. Furthermore, these States are well represented in government with a sitting Vice President, important ministerial portfolios and prominent membership of the economic team. So, we can only expect MORE votes, not less, from the west.
“Adamawa, Kwara, Kogi and Benue states, with over 6 million registered voters, all had Governors from other Parties in 2011, with Senator Bukola Saraki being the PDP governor of Kwara State. In the four States, as the Presidential Candidate of CPC, the President posted six hundred and seventy thousand eighty (670,080) votes while ACN the other legacy party of APC posted 314,741 votes, making a total of 984,741 votes when combined.
“In 2015, with only one APC governor among the 4 States, the president posted total votes 1,315,659 in the four states, gaining over 330,000votes. Today, with APC in charge of three out of the four States, especially with Senator Gbemi Saraki and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, leading the efforts in Kwara State and the APC Structure in Benue State still firmly in the hands of Senator George Akume (the same structure on which Governor Ortom rode to victory) the defection of the Senators from these States will have little or no effect on the difference gained.”
Apart from having governors in Edo and Imo States, Keyamo said the exemplary work of the president in the South-east and South-south, especially in terms of infrastructural developments, like the Second Niger bridge and a whole lot of road constructions, APC is on the rise in these States and this momentum will surely rub off on the electoral fortunes of the President.