KEYAMO: Defectors can’t stop Buhari

Says they ‘re noise makers
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The Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation has dismissed the gale of defection of some All Progressives Congress chieftains as a nonissue, assuring that it won’t stop his re-election in 2019.
Describing the defectors and their party–the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others as noisy neighbours, the team said from the available demographic statistics , their decision to dump the party won’t affect his chances in the poll.
Some National Assembly members elected on APC platform and Benue state Governor, Samuel Ortom recently defected to the opposition PDP, while some governors are still being rumoured to be on their way out of the party.
However, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, Director of Strategic Communications of the organisation, Festus Keyamo, SAN, believed Buhari would not need the defectors to win the 2019 poll.
The organisation revealed that from the demographics at its disposal, the historic figures and the present realities, “these defections will have little or no impact on the chances of Mr.
President’s re-election.” It said: “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.
“The following twelve states; 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.
This 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.” Continuing, Keyamo also recalled that “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.” “As we can see, any defection within these states would have little or no consequence on President Muhammadu Buhari’s chances as he had always won those states, irrespective of the party in power in those states.
For example, in the muchtouted Kano, in the 2011 Presidential election, President Buhari scored one million, six hundred and twenty fou thousand, five hundred and forty three (1,624,543) votes as CPC candidate, while in 2015, he had 1,903,999 one million, nine hundred and three thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine (1,903,999) votes as APC candidate.
The vote difference of about two hundred and eighty thousand (280,000) votes may be attributed to elements of ANPP, negligible ACN and Senator Kwakwanso, then governor of the State that came into APC.
“Today, the President’s popularity in these states has increased due to the fight against Boko Haram which has been largely successful.
So, he should expect more votes from these strongholds,” Keyamo further added.
While analysing nine states President Buhari lost in 2011 but won in 2015, which include; Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi, Adamawa and Benue states, Keyamo stated that five South-western states have now registered voters’ strength of more than 14 million out of the about 20 million voters in the nine states.
Sounding optimistic, the team said, “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.” On lost states in 2015 Commenting on the 15 states Buhari lost in 2015, comprising 11 states of the South-east and South-south and Plateau, Taraba, Nassarawa and Ekiti states, the campaign official spokesperson noted that “apart from having governors in Edo and Imo states, 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.
“This can be seen in the high level defections to the APC in the last three years in these states and more are coming.
The recent election in Anambra is also a testimony to the rising profile of the party in the east.
In 2015, the President scored 17,926 votes in Anambra.
“The most recent governorship election saw APC come second with over 98,000 votes, defeating PDP in the process.
This is a pattern we expect in the 2019 elections throughout the SouthEast and South-South as, compared to the last elections.
The President can only amass more votes from these regions and not less than 2015.” He, however, concluded that in the final analysis, “despite all the noise from our ‘noisy neighbours’, we may be in for a landslide victory for the President in 2019.”