Shut up your ridiculous talks on 2019! Buhari tells critic

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NIGERIA: PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has lambasted his critic, a former member of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buba Galadima.

Buhari alleged that the rationale behind Galadima’s action was because he has not been given appointment under his administration.

The President, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said that the suggestions that the masses will desert him in 2019 was unfounded and utterly ridiculous.

Shehu stated that 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.”

While saying that Galadima’s calculation and prediction was “utterly confused and misleading,” the spokesperson explained that the masses were solidly behind Buhari because he was not stealing their money and their future.

“The President’s enormous goodwill remains ever strong because the people are convinced the President is acting in their best interest, despite the temporary unintended consequences of reforms,” he stressed.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is far from isolation.  He enjoys a very strategic relationship with ordinary Nigerians,” he said, adding: “This relationship is as solid as 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,” Sheuhu also emphasised.

According to him, Galadima cannot speak for the masses as far as their steadfast loyalty to Buhari is concerned.

While acknowledging that the ex-CPC member was entitled to advance his own political agenda, Shehu said Galadima didn’t have the right to decide for ordinary voters.

The spokesperson explained that he recalled that Galadima’s disagreement with President Buhari was based on principle, adding that “President Buhari is committed to level playing field and would not want anyone to link his name to injustice.”

According to him, the disagreement between Galadima and 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.”

Shehu stated that 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 service, such as they are, of Buba Galadima; ran and won the 2015 Elections without them,” he said, adding: “Let Buba Galadima go to his constituency, stand for election and see what will happen to him.”