The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday claimed that the governors of Sokoto and Kwara states, Aminu Tambuwal and Abdulfatah Ahmed respectively, will exit the All Progressives Congress.
Amaechi also said Tambuwal had intentions of running for the presidential seat in 2019 and that President Muhammadu Buhari would win in Sokoto, Kano and Bauchi states in the 2019 general elections even if he (Buhari) is taken to the states “on a sick bed”.
Amaechi told newsmen that although he was quite reserved about speaking on politics, he was certain that in spite of the defections by APC members at the National Assembly, the party would be on the side of victory come 2019.
When told that considering the defection saga, the APC’s collapse is imminent, the minister said: “That’s according to you. Look, you are not a politician so you can’t be commenting on what you don’t know. In fact, let’s look at it. Unfortunately, I don’t want to speak about this but you are putting me under pressure.
“However, no matter what you do, the Governor of Sokoto will leave naturally. He has the ambition to be president. If you take a chicken to him he will still go. The same with Kwara. These are people you expect that they will leave.”
He said, “On those that defected at the House of Representatives and Senate, where do they come from? They come from areas that the President is comfortable. Do you honestly believe that the President will lose the election in Sokoto? We are not God, but it’s one of his comfort zones.
“If you bring the President on a sick bed to Bauchi and Kano, he will win and he has never lost the election in Bauchi. But that is a bit arrogant on our side; we should not underestimate them.
“I am not God. It is only God who can say the APC will win or not. But what is clear is that if you remove the God element, I think we are prepared to coast to victory because Nigerians will certainly reject the second looting. Nigeria can’t survive the second looting. Never!”
He said that the bottleneck in declaring the Presidential flag bearer of the opposition party six months to the election would be to the advantage of the ruling party.
“In our time, it was clear who would be the APC candidate one year ahead of time,” he added.
