The representative of Afikpo North and South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Iduma Igariwey, has decried the lacklustre leadership of Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, maintaining that only a miracle could save them come 2019 general election.
Igariwey, in an interview with some journalists in Abakaliki, said the drastic changes in the political atmosphere across the country was indicative of the fact that APC has lost grip of political relevance.
He noted that banking on rigging the election would still not grant them success, especially at the presidential level, adding that rigging a general election was much more difficult than bye-elections where they deployed the whole contingent of security agencies against their opponents.
The lawmaker maintained that if APC was only able to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party with just some marginal votes in 2015, which he alleged was predominantly manipulated from Kano State, any keen political observer should not expect a repeat of the scenario in favour of APC, especially with the present change in political baton in those areas.
Igariwey explained: “Politics is like science.
“It may not be pure science, but it is also a science; scientific to the extent that the output is determined by the input.
“If you watch what is happening across the length and breadth of this country, if you juxtapose the processes and outcome of the 2015 elections, with what we are witnessing now, you will find out that it will take only a miracle for the APC to win 2019 elections.
“It is as simple as that.
“You can predicate a possible win for APC on the factor of or attempt to rig the election.
“But I have also told you that rigging bye-elections is a completely different animal from rigging a general election.
“It is very difficult to rig general election.
“In 2015, you can see what happened in Kano.
“It was a complete sweep.
“Throughout the North West and North Central.
“It was a complete sweep in the South West…
“That was the realities of 2015.
“But if you also are a keen political follower, you’ll also find out that the weather has changed a lot in some of these States.
“You start from the North Central, starting from Kwara State, where you now have a former Governor, now Senate President, a major financier then of APC, who has now left APC and has become a PDP person.
“If you go to Benue State where you have the incumbent Governor now a member of PDP and so on and so forth.
“If you go to North West, you’ll see the same thing.
“Look at theTambuwals, Tambuwal, the Governor of Sokoto State.
“The point I’m making is that if you go to some of these places, you won’t see the kind of upsets that we witnessed in 2015.
“l don’t think any reasonable person would expect that kind of circumstance repeating itself.
“And now, you may ask yourself: with what did they defeat the PDP in 2015?
“Just a marginal two million plus votes, which they were able to steal from Kano State, predominantly.
“I don’t see that happening again.
“The man who gave them those votes, (Ibrahim) Shekarau, is now in PDP.
“If you go to Lagos State today, you’ll find out that a lot of water passed through the bridge during their primaries.
“Same in Ogun State and so on and so forth.
“So, it’s going to be very difficult election for APC in the 2019 general election.
“They know it, they know it’s going to be very difficult election for them.”
On his report card as a federal lawmaker, Igariwey maintained: “In fact, generally, I would say that I have acquitted myself very well as a member of the 8th National Assembly.”
Attributing his recorded success early so far in the Green Chambers to his profession as both a lawyer and political scientist, he stressed that his previous political experiences had added much value to his career.
According to him, apart from executing many credible constituency projects in his area and empowering his constituents in various ways, he had sponsored over 12 very important bills, generated motions as well as played prominent roles in many committees he belong to, in spite of the fact that he was a first timer.
He named some of his sponsored bills to include bills against the horrendous waste of energy in gas flaring, bill seeking incentives for foreign companies that engage unemployed Nigerian professionals in the diaspora, which, according to him, earned him commendation from the Spanish Government.
Others included bills on limiting legal proceedings against justices of the Supreme Court/ extension of immunity to the leadership of the judiciary as done to the executive and the legislature, etc.
He added: “I have also sponsored bill on ensuring that we actually give teeth to section 14 (3) of the constitution that talked about federal character.
“You’ll find out that the Buhari administration has been very nepotic in the sense that, for instance, the entire security services are being controlled by people from a particular section of this country.
“The bill I have sponsored seeks to amend a particular section of the Army Act, which will make it compulsory for appointment to such top military offices to pass through the National Assembly so that they would be able to vet such appointments to ensure that it reflects federal character.
“Also, a bill seeking freedom of access to telecommunications conversations as a means of tracking criminal activities, etc.
“All the bills are in public domain; on my website, Facebook and other medium.”
Speaking on his re-election bid come 2019 as a representative of his people, Igariwey pointed out that his achievements and experiences put him far ahead of other contenders.
He further alleged that certain contestants against him in the constituency lacked both the ability, legal status and requisite qualification to stand for such integrity position and advised such contestant to quit or risk legal exposure.
He expressed optimism that his constituents, being enlightened, would definitely separate the wheat from the chaff at the appointed time.
Igariwey assured his constituents of more effective and robust representation in his return to the Green Chamber in 2019.
He said: “My constituents should expect more of effective representation.
“I’m going to be stronger member of the National Assembly being that I’m now going to be a ranking member and more influential member of the House of Representatives.
“And with greater influence, comes greater impact on those benefiting from my representation.
“They should just sit back and enjoy this ride that hopefully will take us through 2019 to 2023.”