Presidency to Galadima: Buhari won’t be alone in 2019

A presidential spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, has dismissed suggestions that the masses will desert President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Shehu said the assertion was unfounded and utterly ridiculous.
He said the ordinary Nigerians are the backbone of Buhari’s mandate and the only reason he ran for the office is to protect them against the rapacious merchants of corruption, who have held Nigeria back for decades.
Reacting to allegations by a former member of the Congress for Progressive Change, Alhaji Buba Galadima, that President Buhari would be abandoned by the people in 2019, Shehu said the calculation and prediction are utterly confused and misleading.
He said the masses are solidly behind Buhari because he is not stealing their money and their future.
He said the President’s enormous goodwill remains ever strong because the people are convinced Buhari is acting in their best interest despite the temporary unintended consequences of reforms.
Shehu said: “President Muhammadu Buhari is far from isolation. He enjoys a very strategic relationship with ordinary Nigerians. This relationship is as solid a the proverbial rock. If Buba Galadima thinks that because he has no role and no job in this government that means president is isolated he is putting himself up to ridicule.”
According to Shehu, Galadima cannot speak for the masses as far as their steadfast loyalty to Buhari is concerned.
While acknowledging that Galadima was entitled to advance his own political agenda, Shehu said He didn’t have the right to decide for ordinary voters.
Shehu recalled that Galadima’s disagreement with Buhari was based on principle.
He explained that Buhari is committed to level playing field and would not want anyone to link his name to injustice.
The presidential media aide said Galadima’s disagreement with Buhari started in 2011 when a group within the party orchestrated an organizational mess by which the CPC embarked on the imposition and substitution of candidates for cash payments at the expense of those duly and democratically elected.
He said Buhari was embarrassed by the incidents and complaints about the imposition and substitution of candidates, adding that he, as a democrat, would not suppress the will of the people to please selfish interests.
Consequently he dispensed with the services pf those involved in the imposition such as such as Galadima; ran and won the 2015 election without them.
“Let Buba Galadima go to his constituency, stand for election and see what will happen to him,” Shehu said.