Atiku No Match For Buhari In The North

Atiku No Match For Buhari In The North

President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar

Senator of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday that the party will emerge stronger from the crises arising from its primaries.

It is also his position that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar cannot defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in February’s poll.

Senator Abu Ibrahim (Katsina South), who x-rayed the crisis in some state chapters of APC, traced the cause  to the burning desire of many Nigerians to secure APC’s tickets for the 2019 elections.

He noted that APC being the ruling party made it attractive to those seeking elective positions in 2019.

Ibrahim also said the crises stemmed from the “high interest and high stake” most people placed on the primary election as “the main thing” before the general election in 2019.

Ibrahim said, “The APC is a governing party. Everybody believes once you have the ticket, APC will do it for you.

“Obviously, the interests are high, the stakes are so high. Everybody wants to take APC ticket.

“Everybody wants to be APC candidate. Many people were shocked when I bought APC form and decided to opt out of the primary election. I said I will not contest again. They said, you are Mr. President’s man, you will get it. Why do you want to leave?

“Everybody believes that taking the ticket of APC is a sure way of winning election. People believe that once you have the ticket of the party your work is done.

“The primary election is the main thing, once we are through with it, every other thing will fall in line.

“It was easier for me to secure nomination when I was in opposition in Katsina State. For those who were in PDP it was difficult because then PDP was government party.

“We were only two people that bought the form while PDP had close to 10 people. So it is always like that with the governing party, the government party.

“You can see, even those of us who are not contesting, there is pressure. But our duty is to make sure that the right persons take over.”

In the Katsina South senator’s view,  nobody is happy with the crises rocking the party, but he is hopeful that APC will emerge much stronger from the crisis.

He applauded the national chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, for working assiduously to institutionalize democracy in the party.

For him, anybody working to effect positive change in any system would face the kind of challenges Oshiomhole is facing in APC.

He said: “I salute the national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, for putting a lot of his time to the party and for working to institutionalise democracy in the party.

“That is what he is trying to do, let democracy take root in the party. Oshiomhole wants to change the system.