Faleke to Buhari: You May Not Win Kogi with Bello as Chief Campaigner
Former deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State and President Muhammadu Buhari’s former campaign coordinator for Lagos State, Hon James Abiodun Faleke, has advised President Buhari not to get carried away by the recent boastful exclamation from Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, during a visit to the Presidential Villa that he would ensure Kogi delivers more votes for the president in 2019 than Katsina, his home state, stating the governor had no such capacity in view of the level of his unpopularity in the state.
According to Faleke, it is the height of deceit and folly for a governor who is notorious for neglecting the welfare of the citizens of his state by owing them several months of unpaid salaries and pensions, a governor who cannot even provide basic infrastructure like water, road, and hospitals, a governor who through his ineptitude has become the most unpopular governor the state has produced to boast of being able to lead the same citizenry who are daily dying of hunger to vote en masse for President Buhari.
“I refer to a boastful statement credited to Bello that Kogi State would garner more votes for President Buhari in 2019 than Katsina State and I ask myself why is the governor fooling himself thinking he is fooling Nigerians. First, the governor has never contested for any election and won before. Not even councillorship election. The governorship seat he is occupying today, he didn’t campaign for it. He was simply gifted the seat, so how can such a person stand to discuss election issues?
|How can a governor who is not registered as a voter in his state mobilise vote for no less a person than Mr. President? How can a governor who has been indicted by INEC for fraudulently engaging himself in double registration lead the campaign train of Mr. President across the state with such a moral stain hanging on his neck? What does he know about mobilisation of people for elections? So when elections are being discussed, he should be told to keep quiet?
“My questions are how will Kogi under Bello vote more than Katsina the state of origin of Mr. President? Is it because of his zero performance, his wasteful management of resources in his state or is it because of the rampant kidnapping in the state, incessant killings of labour leaders and dissenting voices as compared with Katsina?
“The governor’s Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja in a video gone viral had told a labour leader in the state that he was hitherto gunning for the labour leader’s head but that he was lucky to be present with him in the same church that day. Is that how to attract voters to PMB’s Camp? What achievement is Bello going to use to campaign?”