By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said that nothing would stop Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), from winning the 2019 general election given endorsements from all relevant regional groups.
Saraki also commended persons he described as “the leadership of respected voices of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities.”
He described the regional leaders’ endorsement as an incontrovertible validation of the scientific polls by the London Economist intelligence unit and the William and Associate team.
The Senate president who is the director-general of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, noted further that the result of the scientific polls was a true reflections of the wish of the electorate.
Saraki, in a statement in Abuja pointed out that with the latest developments, Nigerians had taken a position that the false claim of integrity and anti-corruption fight by President Muhammadu Buhari was nothing but an election gimmick.
The statement read in part: “The endorsements are like tonic to the work of the campaign organisations to intensify our efforts as it is a testament that we are employing the right approach and techniques to market our candidate to Nigerians.
“The economy has been thoroughly mismanaged. Insecurity has become more widespread and beyond their control, while the government encourages and nurtures corruption from within”.
He also expressed confidence that Atiku would win the election in a free-and-fair contest based on the scientific forecasts by the two groups and the support for Atiku by the electorate.
Saraki urged Nigerians to take a cue from the gale of endorsements and predictions by credible groups in favour of Atiku and vote wisely.
The statement noted that “We have been able to change the narratives. We have debunked a lot of lies and rumours being peddled around against our candidate and Nigerians are now better informed.
“Leaders of the ruling party know they could no longer deceive Nigerians because we have allowed the people to know that they are all pretenders with their claim of integrity and anti-corruption posture.
“The fact that Nigerians expressed favourable opinions while credible private agencies were conducting their research showed that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would defeat the incumbent, President Buhari, next week Saturday.”
It would be recalled that five socio-political organisations spread across all the geopolitical zones in the country namely the Northern Elders Forum, Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Middle Belt Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Afenifere, had on Sunday endorsed Atiku Abubakar.
The leaders who spoke on behalf of their groups included Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Chief Edwin Clark, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief John Nwodo and Mr Bitrus Pogu. They urged Nigerians to vote for Atiku because he would make the desired change.
Before the endorsement, a field work conducted by Pollster, Williams and Associates revealed that Atiku would defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 16 presidential election.
The agency had, in a similar field work in 2015, predicted the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last presidential election.
Similarly, a forecast by the Economist Intelligence Unit in Africa has revealed that Buhari will be defeated by Atiku in next week’s presidential poll.
