Barely one week after a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek a second term in office or risk a disgraceful defeat, another cleric has predicted that the President would be rejected at the polls if he venture to seek re-election.
The ominous prophecies are coming even as two eminent political figures from the North have scored Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) low on key indices of governance and warned that poor performance in the first term could spell doom for the ruling party in 2019.
Former Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said the way out was for Buhari to form a Government of National Unity (GNU) to build momentum for 2019.
Dr. Junaid Mohammed, a former member of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, said that, the apparent bid by Buhari and APC to win the next election by all means could have disastrous consequences. Similarly, the Leader of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYC), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has failed Nigerians with its many broken promises and should tender an apology to the nation.
“This government has failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians. President Buhari came with many promises but he failed to fulfill them. He has failed Nigerians and his fate will be determined by the electorate in 2019 and I can tell you that I don’t see this government performing any miracle between now and then,” Shettima said.
Prophet Emmanuel Omale, founder of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries International, Abuja, said a serving governor from the north and one of Buhari’s ministers would gain better acceptance than the president.
“I see a lot of challenges with the candidacy of President Muhammad Buhari, as his acceptance requires a lot of prayers and personal soul searching,” Prophet Omale said.
He noted that the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who recently returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “will be disgraced and humiliated out of PDP by sitting PDP governors.
Omale said: “PDP Senators, House of Representatives members and governors are going to gang up against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.”
The prophet predicted that a new political party that would redefine Nigeria’s political map, would be formed between March and April this year, adding that, President Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would have big challenges managing a backlash that would come from its National Convention.
“God has not finished purging PDP; therefore they require a lot of work to form a cohesive and vibrant challenge to APC. I see a PDP governor cross-carpeting to APC,” he said.
According to the cleric, the PDP will lose this year’s governorship election in Ekiti State. On the international scene, Prophet Omale said there will be political instability in Sierra Leone, and he called for prayers against civil war in Cameroon.
He said American President, Donald Trump “would have a better perception” this year while Prime Minister Theresa May will lose the leadership of the ruling party in the United Kingdom.
He urged the nation to pray against some misfortunes and calamities, especially for the President’s wife, Aisha and children. In an exclusive interview with Sunday Telegraph, Dr. Junaid Mohammed lamented that politics in most developing countries, particularly Nigeria has been so monetised that the best materials don’t participate because they lack the financial muscle.
Mohammed said that though the last election was won not on the basis of money, it is becoming obvious that money will play a big role in the forthcoming election in Nigeria.
“The incumbent in this dispensation is somehow having the false belief that they need to produce lots of money to win the next election and we know where such money comes from; it comes from the Ex-Chequer.
This money is stolen. “Now if those who won election in 2015 imagine that they cannot win in 2019 unless they make huge amount of money in billions, you can see that we have not learnt any lessons.
Like the pogroms, we learnt nothing and we forgot nothing. “In a rational situation, you would expect people who have gone into government to have performed well and expect to be reelected on the basis of their performance but from what I hear and what I observe, the current crop of leaders and the Cabal in the Presidency imagine that having deceived Nigerians to vote for them in 2015, they now think that they can corrupt or coerce the people to give them another mandate come 2019.
“I don’t see them winning the election in a free and fair contest. This is why they are now talking about using money to buy the votes. They want to buy their way to the Presidency. “I don’t believe they have done enough to win the election and if they win the election or think that they can buy their way by corrupting the Armed Forces, Police and the other paramilitary institutions, they would be courting trouble. If they lose the election and they refuse to go, the country may be heading for the rocks,” he said.
On the other hand, Alhaji Balarabe Musa said that President Buhari still has a chance to change the tide of events if he could quickly set up a Government of National Unity (GNU) to win over political opponents from across the political divides and shore up the image of his regime in terms of performance. According to Musa, the proposed GNU should be headed by Buhari and his party, but involving the main opposition party, PDP and about five or ten other relevant political parties in the country.
“This is to bring about a sense of belonging among the politicians. It will also give hope to the populace that something is happening along the line of national unity, democracy and social progress. “In addition to constituting a government of national unity, he should also resolve the fundamental problems of the country.
The most fundamental problem is the social, economic and political system which controls all developments in the country. The leadership produced by this system is mostly based first on selfish interest and public interest and thirdly, incidental. This should be changed in favour of a system based first on public interest and secondly enlightened self interest,” he said.
Comments
