The former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife has dismissed the claim of the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai that President Muhammadu Buhari is irreplaceable in the 2019 presidential election.
Speaking in a newspaper interview, Ezeife said el Rufai should not be taken seriously for his comment stressing that a Buhari presidency is not in the best interest of Nigeria.
Ezeife said el Rufai supports Buhari to feather his (el Rufai’s) political nest.
He asked: “Is Governor El-Rufai being honest? Is he not eyeing the presidency? What does the continuation of Buhari’s presidency translate to for the average Nigerian?”
Ezeife said the electorate will make the decision 2019 decision, noting that Nigerians are not unaware of some politicians struggling to save their political careers ahead of the next general elections.
It would be recalled that the Kaduna State governor had said that there is no alternative to Buhari, stressing that the president remains electorally unbeatable with his attachment to the people unwavering, despite recriminations by the elite class on social and conventional media.
El Rufai who spoke on the president’s electoral invincibility in an interview on Channels Television said: “I do not have any doubt in my mind that we are going to win the next elections; not only in the centre but we are going to preserve our 24 states, and even more.
“We are not saying this foolishly; this is scientific. We are monitoring the pulse of Nigerians, not the pulse of a section of Nigerians and I am confident that we are going to win the 2019 elections.
“We know the pulse of the nation, we know where we are losing support, we know where we are gaining support; I have no doubt in my mind that we are going to win the 2019 elections.
“There are two pulses of Nigerians – there is the pulse of the Nigerian elites which is the noise that you hear in the media, the social media and so on; then there is the pulse of the people.
“If you remember how many people came out to welcome President Buhari in Kano, then you will know that there are two Nigerias.”
The governor also dismissed insinuations that his vociferous support for a second term for the President was because he wanted to ride on his coat-tail for his own second term.
“I believe that it is in the overall interest of our party and the stability of Nigeria; it is not because I stand to gain or lose anything. But it is because in everything I’ve done since I got into public service, for me the interest of Nigeria comes first. “God has given me everything through the instrumentality of this country – I don’t need anything as a person but what I need is to see a country that is making progress, that is stable and leave a legacy for our children to build on it,” he said.
