Buhari will lose majority votes in Bauchi ― Tukur

FEW days to the 2019 presidential election, it has been observed that President Muhammadu Buhari who is seeking reelection for a second term under the platform of the ruling APC will not get the number of votes of the people of Bauchi State as he got in the previous elections particularly the 2015 general elections.

The observation was made by a member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly representing Lere/Bula under the ruling APC, Muhammad Aminu Tukur who said that because he (Buhari) is supporting the re-election of the State Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, the people of the state will definitely not give him the kind of support he has been enjoying from the state because they are disenchanted by the poor performance of the APC led administration in the state.

Aminu Tukur, who has never hidden his disagreement with the APC led administration in the state said in an interview with Journalists that: “Buhari cannot decide the fate of the people of Bauchi State, if he had 90% supporters in 2015, then, this time around, he has less than 50%. By raising the hands of Governor Mohammed Abubakar, he (Buhari) has defeated himself. Even the President himself, will definitely not find it easy in Bauchi State this time around. I am one of those that will not vote for him again.”

He accused the state government of failing to deliver dividends of democracy to the people of the state because according to him, that there is no N50 million project in any local government area of the state.

He said: “The present government in Bauchi State is a failure, we have never had a government that is so loosed, corrupt and inept in the way it handles things like this time around. A government that has served for more than 3 years and 7 months has no N50 million worth of project in any local government area of the state, despite the huge money that accrues to the state.”

He added that, “If they (the state government) fail, they must accept that and give way to someone who is serious to rule. We know the very ordinary Nigerian has their way of solving the problem. We know the revolution that happened in 2007, the same thing happened in 2015 and a replica of it will definitely happen in 2019, nobody can stop that.”

Aminu Tukur further said that, “He (the Governor), even made it known when he was elected the Governor that the people of Bauchi State are wiser and can decide to change a leader who is a failure, no matter how tactful he is and how strong he is.”

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Although a member of the APC, Aminu Tukur, while reacting to claims by the State government that the opposition parties are planning violence during the elections, said that it wasn’t true but rather accused his party of planning to orchestrate violence declaring that, “It is not true. The government is not sincere that the opposition parties are trying to cause violence during the elections, it is the government of Bauchi State that is planning violence against its citizens.”

Asked if he has confidence in the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a free, fair and credible general elections in Bauchi State he said: “I was made to realise that the Governor made several efforts to see to it that he manipulates and imposes ad-hoc staff who will do the elections specifically, by nominating his cronies from the state Tertiary Institutions. Happily enough, I learnt that INEC refused and rejected everything and decided that they will use the Federal Institutions in the state.”

He also said that INEC’s refusal to allegedly do the government’s bidding, is a testimony that the electoral body is serious and may do the wishes of the ordinary Nigerians while on fears being expressed by residents that security agents may be used to oppress voters to pave way for manipulation of the election results, the Lawmaker said he has no confidence in the Nigerian Police.

He said that “We know of their failures, and their inability to tally with the aspirations of the common man. I am telling you from the bottom of my heart, we don’t have confidence in their ability to administer justice fairly. I have said a positive pronouncement on INEC but not on the security Institutions in Bauchi State because they are just sycophants who dance to the tune of the Governor. I have no apology for saying that.”

The Lawmaker also said that the fact that Buhari is seen as “humanly clean and transparent,” doesn’t mean that those around him are like him and stated that the President’s Advisers tell who he is and “certainly, those around the President are not saints, they belong to the class of people that we have been condemning all this while.

He said that “It is known to all of us the level of corruption that is being levelled around virtually everybody around him and nobody can dispute that. Inasmuch as it continues, certainly, Nigerians have every reason to condemn whatever kind of policy that is being made by the President because of his failure to punish those people around him that are generally known by Nigerians as cabals.”

He, however, faulted the action of the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, for swearing in members of the Election Petition Tribunals pointing out that “composition of the Election Petition Tribunals is not for the Chief Justice of Nigeria to do single-handedly.”

He said that the President of the Court of Appeal is expected to send a memo to that effect to the Chief Justices of the States, the Federal Capital Territory and even the Federal High Court, to make nominations which are taken to the National Bar Association in the States and the National level, for their comments on members that have been nominated to serve in the Tribunals before being sent to the CJN for him to swear them in.

“I have every reason to say that Justice Tanko Muhammad, the new Acting CJN, did not nominate a single person on that list,” he said.

All efforts to get a reaction from both the state chapter of the APC and the state government failed as calls pulled through to some of the party and government officials were not answered as at the time of filing in this report.