ABUJA
– GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi state, Wednesday night told President Muhammadu
Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to get ready for
aggressive marketing of the President and the party, declaring that the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would not be a push over in the 2019
general elections.
President
Buhari with SGF Boss Mustapha, Chief of Staff Abba Kyari, Governor Yahaya Bello
of Kogi State and ED NEXIM Bank Mrs Stella Oketete as he hosts to dinner Young
Political Appointees and Volunteers in State House Governor Bello who stated
this when President Buhari hosted a dinner for youth political appointees at
the Presidential Villa, Abuja, warned the APC against complacency, saying that
opposition should not be taken for granted if the APC should win the election.
But
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha has said
that the PDP in its 16 years did not do one tenth of what the APC has done in
the past three and half years, adding that the ruling party went to the 2015
election with promises but will be going with its score card in the 2019
elections.
The
Kogi State Governor said though the President remained the best leader for the
country till 2023, the issue of perception was one that must be taken seriously
by the APC to ensure that no chance was given to the opposition to return to
power. He said the task before the APC was to convince the masses of all Mr.
President had done for Nigerians. According to him, “A good product sells itself
and Mr. President is a very good product. And his competence is definitely
needed for the progress of this nation. But we need to go out there and sale
him to the people.
“Public
Relations practitioners will tell you that at some point, having a good product
without excellent advertising is a winking in the dark. You know what you are
doing but no one else does. Perception is reality but when it comes to politics
and campaigning, perception management is therefore critical in a time like
this. “We must market the incredible accomplishment of Mr. President and of his
administration to every voter and in a language he or she understands.
If
we fail, God forbids, the adverse narrative being put out by the PDP and other
propaganda machine will dominate the land and shape perception. “If we don’t
market our product very well, a tough and progressive victory against a
terrorist threat which continues to cost the lives of our brave military and
law enforcement agencies will be mistaken for inactions. “If we don’t market
our product very well, try our political exposed offenders using long extant
laws which previous leaders were not willing to deploy against cronies,
accomplishes will be mistaken extra-judicial measures and disdain for the rule
of law.
“If
we do not put Mr. President’s achievements before our people so that they can
sight it themselves, we will be agreeing with the PDP that in fighting
corruption which he is offering again is somehow better than the alleged
incompetence of the APC which has accomplished everything I have enumerated
above. “In summary, all may be lost if we don’t get Nigerian people to see why
they must vote and allow Mr President continue his great work as we go to the
poll in 2019. “All that the crooked PDP is offering Nigerians is that
corruption is better than incompetence in quote. 2015 was about change, 2019
will be about progress. “As members of the APC, we will not deny that our party
has a huge task in the 2019 general elections, the election will never be a
walk-over and the PDP will not be a push over.
“And
we must take nothing and no one for granted. If we cannot defeat PDP, maybe we
should not be influencers or we should not even go to politics.” Also speaking,
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha, said that
the PDP didn’t achieve one-tenth of APC achievements in its sixteen years at
the helm of affairs. He said, “As a Government arm, we have achieved so much
and I am going to make available to you a document that we have put together,
which captures what the government has been able to achieve in just about two
and half years, what I called a midterm report.
“If
we have to make a comparison of what has been achieved in the last couple of
years, the 16 years of PDP administration will not constitute one-tenth of what
we have been able to achieve in the last three and half years. “We went to the
2015 elections with promises, but we will go to the 2019 elections with our
scorecard.” Also speaking, the Executive Director, Nigerian Social Insurance
Trust Fund, NSITF, Jasper Azuatalam, told President Buhari that most Nigerians
were presently disappointed with him because he had failed to perform the magic
they had expected from him. He, however, cautioned that it would be the worst
thing for Nigeria if power slides back to the PDP in 2019. He said, “The worst
thing we can to this country Nigeria, is to allow PDP to come back to power in
2019.
It
is the worst thing we can do to Nigeria. I will liken PDP to a lion that has
been put in the cage for a long time. “I have interacted with their members and
I know how hungry they have become because they don’t see free money as before.
If we lose this lion again in 2019, then Nigeria is going to walk more than
1,000 steps backward. “Like we always said in those days we lost elections, Mr.
President will always get eleven to twelve million votes whether he operates
from a party or not.
That’s
how good will we had that time, but that is because a lot of people believed
that by Mr. President’s integrity and his ant-corruption, he is going to do
magic when he resumes office as President that in two months, Nigeria will
change. “They don’t know it would happen. But the truth is that most of these
have been disappointed because they didn’t see the magic. That is why we need to
do the real work.” But the President reassured the youths that Nigeria has all
it takes for them to live a good life. He condemned the rush by some Nigerians,
especially the youth, in search of greener pastures abroad, saying his
administration was determined to transform the country and make it better than
it met it.
He
said: “If people don’t feel good about this country, let them go and find out
what is happening elsewhere but we are going to stay here and we are going to
salvage this country together. “I have gone through a lot, I have been
Governor, I was in charge of our petroleum sector for over three years, I was
Head of State and now I have come without the uniform and have visited each of
the 774 Local government Areas in this country. “The intention of this
administration is to do the infrastructure and give education and healthcare to
our people especially the poor.’’
President
Buhari also noted that agriculture has blossomed under his administration,
making more Nigerian rich in the process. He said Nigerians were now leaving
white-collar jobs for farming to tap from the revolution being witnessed in the
agricultural sector, saying the country had achieved food security. “I foresaw
our problem in agriculture and did the right thing and today, people are much
better, In terms of unemployment, our able bodied persons that do not have
education and can’t get white-collar jobs, went back to till the land and
today, none of them is regretting it. “It’s very rare now to see idle people
and the farmers are making money,’’ he added.
The
president, however, expressed disappointment over the inadequate media coverage
of the administration’s agricultural revolution programmes by the Nigerian
press. He said the press did not give the credit of the ongoing transformation
in the agricultural sector of the country to his administration. “I’m very
disappointed with the Nigerian press. They didn’t give this government the
credit of the `go back to land programme. We have cut down the importation of
rice by at least 90 percent,” he said.
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