As Buhari, APC storm confluence state for votes

President Muhammadu Buhari, last Wednesday, kick-started his campaign towards his second term in office in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital, with the entire state feeling the presence of the president of the most populous black Afican nation. The choice of Kogi as the first point of call during the journey that is expected to take the president across the 36 states of the federation was strategic and an opportunity for the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to publicly display the acceptability of the president by the people of the Confluence state. Bello has never hidden his love and support for Buhari and he has always exploited every available opportunity to display that he is 100 percent loyal to any cause that the president believes in.

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The Lokoja rally was another avenue for the governor and his “New Direction” team to show the entire country that Kogi state belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and that the party will coast home to victory in the next election.

A day to the event, the state capital started to have a feeling that the machinery of government at the centre will move down to the historical town and the campaign materials of candidates of the APC contesting elections like posters, flax banners, billboards and hand bills flooded environments. Major stakeholders, including government, the party, candidates and others were also contesting for airtime on the state-based media houses to welcome Buhari, who was returning to the state after his last campaign for the 2015 elections.

The state capital, on the day of the rally, witnessed the influx of what many described as an unprecedented crowd of party faithful and supporters, who were drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state. As early as 8 am, commercial buses conveying members from various corners of the state started trooping into the town, making human and vehicular movements to be hectic as traffic officers had a difficult time with motorists. As traffic build up, movements from one part of the town to another that ordinarily should not be more than 10 minutes saw people spending between 45 minutes and one hour to get to their destinations. By the time the campaign kicked off at about 2pm, the entire town was locked down and the shout of “APC…next level” rented the air.

The rally was preceded by a meeting of the president with traditional rulers in the state, which was held at the Lugard Government House with the Ata Igala, Michael Idakwo, the chairman of the state council of chiefs, leading the monarchs to the meeting. Buhari used the occasion to reel out the efforts of his administration at solving the myraid of problems facing the country. He said his administration, if re-elected would continue to implement policies and programmes that would make living worthwhile for the people of the country.

The entrance of the president into the Lokoja Confluence Stadium, the venue of the rally, at about 2 pm threw the atmosphere into a frenzy as he moved round the stadium to cheer the waiting crowd, who had waited for over six hours before his arrival. As Buhari waved broom, the symbol of the APC, the jubilant crowd excitedly shouted “Baba oyoyo, Sai Baba, sai baba. Baba na you we want 4+4”.

Accompanied by Bello, the National Chairman of the party Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the director general of the campaign and the minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of state for labour and productivity, Stephen Ocheni, the minister of Interior Abdurahman Danbazzau, the Chief of Staff (COS) to the state governor, Edward Onoja,  rhe Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mrs Folasade Ayoade, among others, the president, who could not hide his joy over the event, beamed with smile as he made his way to his seat.

The rally then witnessed the rendition of speeches by the leaders of the party, aimed at encouraging the people to vote for the APC. The national chaiman lauded the governor for his organisational ability that made him put up the rally with short notice, saying Bello had proved that Kogi was for APC and that the current leadership in the state has the capacity to deliver hundreds of thousands of supprters and votes during the poll.

Oshiomhole, who made jest of  the major opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the PDP invented rigging, and its members are now jittery as their campaigns have always been about rigging and fear that the APC would rig them out.

He further added that the PDP was already jittery in view of their inabilities to rig their way back to power, noting that President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC were ready to give Nigeria free and fair election.

The former Edo state governor stated that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was not new to vote stealing and challenged members of the public to find out how the then opposition candidates were forced to accept defeat after having secured victory in the three senatorial elections of 2011 in Atiku’s home state of Adamawa.

Bello, in his speech boasted that Buhari would win all the polling units in the state on February 16 that the presidential election will hold. He said the people of Kogi state believed in the leadership of the President, and that of the APC and would be happy to reward him with victory.

He said, “Everyone who attended the rally is just foot a soldier. Each and everybody here has promised that they will come to the polling units with not less than 10 people. Those 10 will each come with additional 10. We shall win every polling unit in Kogi state because the people believe in your leadership, in APC and my leadership.”

He added that Nigerian’s will not allow the PDP to return to power, saying: “All the thieves who came here the other time, you can see them, they have expired. Sir, when they come close to you they are smelling. The money they have stolen has finished, they want to come back and steal again. Sir, we the youths are not going to allow them again.

“As I’m saying this now, I know that all the youths across the federation have resolved that the future belongs to us. And who is going to guarantee that future? Apart from God almighty, it is President Muhammadu Buhari who’s going to guarantee that future.”

When the president mounted the podium to address the crowd, he didn’t mince words when he said he would continue with the fight against looting of the treasury of the nation. Flanked by the dignitaries, Buhari also sounded a note of warning to the people not to choose any candidate from the PDP during the general elections.

He said, “I am warning you don’t make the mistake of choosing any PDP candidate.”

According to him, voting PDP would return the country to the dark era and also erode the progress that had been witnessed in the country since his administration came into power in 2015.

Speaking on the efforts of his government,  Buhari said, “I have challenged anybody in Nigeria to check in Europe, America and Asia that Nigeria was producing 2.1million barrels per day at the cost of 100 dollar per barrel.

“What they will try to do is to cover the theft they have committed against the nation. I assure you I will follow the system, anybody that is held responsible we will get him, take away the money and put in the treasury”.

The president however reaffirmed his commitment to the fight against corruption, saying that every kobo stolen from the treasury by past leaders would be recovered and paid back into the nation’s coffer.

He also promised to work on the resuscitation of the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company, saying unemployment would be tackled if the company is completed and functional.

The attendance of the campaign in Lokoja was indeed massive and if the crowd in a rally is what is needed to win an election, the APC should be celebrating its victory by now. However, this is Nigeria where many candidates in the past had assembled unprecedented crowds at their rallies and at the end lost the contest. So the party has to beyond the rally and sell its programmes that have positively affected the lives of the people to enable the electorate make informed decisions on the day of the election.