2019 elections won’t be a walkover for APC, Kogi gov admits

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has said that the 2019
general election will not be a walkover for the ruling All
Progressives Congress.

He said a lot of work needed to be done by all party members if
President Muhammadu Buhari must be re-elected for a second
term.

Bello said this in his remarks during a dinner Buhari organised
in honour of his young supporters at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,
on Wednesday night.

The governor noted that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party
would not be a pushover and advised the APC members against taking
anybody or anything for granted.

He said, “As members of the APC, we will not deny that our party
has a huge task before us in the 2019 general election.

“The elections will not be a walkover, the PDP will not be a
pushover and we must take nothing and no one for granted.”

Bello said the APC that was going into the 2019 elections was
radically different from the APC which won the 2015 presidential
election.

“Fair-weather friends who came for the good times have left,
disappointed by Mr President’s insistence on personal integrity,
fiscal prudence, equality before the law, national security, party
discipline, international dignity and a single-minded war on
corruption,” he said.

To win the forthcoming elections, Bello said party members must
be ready to be telling the story of the present administration from
now till when victory would be achieved in 2019.

He added, “The immediate task before us is to convince the
masses that everything Mr President has done is for our overall
benefit.”

Bello said if the APC members failed to market the present
administration well, economic recovery would be mistaken for
slow-down due to poor management of the nation’s economy; while
measures to protect local industries and stimulate domestic
production would be mistaken for the deliberate impoverishment of
the populace via high prices of essential commodities.

He added that borrowing for rapid infrastructural development
would be mistaken for unwarranted or misapplied debt; while a tough
and progressive victory against a terrorist threat which continues
to cost the nation the lives of her brave military and law
enforcement personnel would be mistaken for inaction.