Lamido, who is also the North-west Coordinator of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation, further
opined that religion and ethnicity would play a major role in the March
28 presidential election, simply because President Goodluck Jonathan is
from the south and a Christian and Buhari is a Muslim and a northerner.
He also challenged the APC presidential standard-bearer to state how he
intends to confront corruption, which is the major plank of his
presidential manifesto, when some former governors of the PDP who are
now members of the APC are facing corruption charges in the courts.
In an exclusive interview with THISDAY, Lamido stressed that the
presidential election would further divide the country into north and
south, based on religious fault lines.
According to the Jigawa governor, “Some elite in the north have made
religion the campaign issue. They are supporting Buhari, not because
they love him, but simply because he is Muslim from the north and are
against President Jonathan because he is from the south and is a
Christian. This is the mode of the presidential campaigns in the north.
“But Thank God we are breaking and debunking this myth because the
Nigeria of today has gone past that stage. The works of the PDP
governors in bringing home the dividends of democracy is gradually
presenting President Jonathan as the preferred presidential candidate.
“Even among the elite and northern establishment, Jonathan is seen as
the preferred candidate despite the campaign style of the APC in using
religion and ethnicity to entice the talakawas (local parlance for the
masses).”
He explained that religious sentiments and campaigns on the basis of
ethnicity have boosted Buhari’s standing in the north, saying: “People
of the north are said to be supporting him because they say that he is
one of our own and he is Muslim.
“This is also what is happening in the south. Some of President
Jonathan's supporters in the south are doing so because he is a
Christian and from the south. But above all, to the elite, we see him
from the prism of what he has done. That is why I said that he is the
preferred candidate.”
Lamido, who described Buhari’s corruption mantra as unnecessary
rhetoric, wondered how the APC presidential candidate intends to tackle
the menace of corruption when some former PDP governors that have
defected to the APC are currently facing corruption charges in various
courts in the country.
“How would Buhari, if he became president, tackle the corruption cases
pending against the former Governor of Gombe, Danjuma Goje, and the
former Governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki. What will he do to them?
Will he send them to jail or convict them as he did when he was the
military head of state.
“Buhari should come clean and tell Nigerians his blueprint on how to
tackle corruption. It is not just shouting about corruption. Let
Nigerians know how this would be done,” he said.
Lamido added that the March 28 presidential election would be
significant because it would help determine once and for all the true
leader of the “Yoruba nation” after the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
“If the Yorubas vote for Buhari because their son is the national
leader of the South-west, then it will prove that (Asiwaju) Bola Tinubu
is the undisputed leader of the Yorubas. This is because his people have
spoken and therefore hearkened to Tinubu’s directives.
“But if not, then it will be laid to rest that Tinubu is not the leader
of the Yorubas. As you can see, some recognised leaders of the
South-west have decided and urged their followers in the zone to vote
for President Jonathan as the preferred presidential candidate.
“This is why Jonathan will beat Buhari hands down in Yorubaland and indirectly settle the leadership role among the Yorubas.
“In the Second Republic, even in the First Republic, the Yorubas obeyed
the directive of Chief Awolowo and voted according to his instruction.
This is what the coming election will prove and I bet you, the reverse
would be the case,” he said.
From thisday
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