2019: Don’t make Buhari’s family the issue, presidency warns PDP

The presidency has released the statement below warning the main opposition party, PDP, not to make family matters an issue in the 2019 elections.

The statement was sent to PREMIUM TIMES by Mr Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

The warning follows the reactions that trailed Mr Buhari’s public response to criticisms by his wife Aisha.

Mrs Buhari had alleged that two men within the Presidential Villa are responsible for many of the president’s actions.

The president in his response dared his wife to present any evidence of such claim.

Mr Shehu said he was reacting to PDP statements on the controversy.

Read Mr Shehu’s full statement below.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu says if the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP wants to make family the issue in the coming elections, the APC would gladly accept the challenge.

“Let this be the subject for 2019 election,” he told State House Correspondents in an interaction on Wednesday.

Reacting to various comments by several organs of the opposition party on remarks made by the President on views publicly expressed by his wife, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, in an interview, the presidential spokesman said questions raised of the president by the PDP in regard to his wife only amounted to an own goal.

“The PDP leadership cannot afford to make family an issue in this campaign. Need I say more? The only thing I want to add is that PDP is engaging in mud-slinging because it finds it easier than speaking on their despicable 16-year record in the course of which they abused the trust of Nigerians.

“They made a mess of everything including the economy, security and infrastructure. It has come to the destiny of President Muhammadu Buhari to correct their mistakes.

“The PDP doesn’t see anything beyond grabbing power, power at all costs. As an opposition party, they have failed. They have remained disconnected with the masses of our people. It is an irony that a party that boasted as being the largest in Africa is now begging small parties for alliances. Even if they get all those paper parties behind them, they will still fail. A Presidential contest is more than the issuance of daily press releases containing falsehoods.

“They have launched a campaign for the Presidency, a campaign that has failed to get any traction. PDP members are themselves admitting that the campaign hadn’t made a good start, that attendance at rallies had unarguably been thin. The whole thing is not working; that President Buhari is unstoppable,” Garba Shehu said.

He continued, “rather than a so-called cabal, an imaginary creation attached to all past governments of the country, President Buhari is remote-controlled by the 200 million-plus Nigerian people whose interest is uppermost in everything he says and does.

“The PDP doesn’t have the strength and support to fight President Buhari. They don’t have the records in security, economy and the war against corruption to mount any meaningful challenge. They have no records of accomplishments in infrastructure. In the 16 years they held sway, they have nothing to show for the colossal oil revenues earned, including USD 16 billion doled upfront from the Central Bank for power, without a single megawatt to show for all that money. That is why they are dragging the President’s wife into their politics.”