A former Housing Minister, Chief Nduese Essien, has disclosed that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would defeat incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.
According to him, Nigerians would back Atiku because the Buhari administration had disappointed them.
Essien, a former House of Representatives member for Eket Constituency, Akwa Ibom, said that the Buhari administration since coming to office in May 2015 has engaged in nepotism, failed to tackle insecurity, and destroyed the economy.
Addressing reporters in Abuja on Sunday, Essien said that although the APC administration of Buhari had appointed more Akwa Ibom indigenes into high positions, nothing could be seen as the party’s achievement in the state.
He further accused the Buhari administration of bias in its anti-corruption war, noting that opposition figures were being hounded while APC politicians were portrayed as untouchables.
The ex-minister said that Atiku was in a better position to salvage the nation’s ailing economy and combat insecurity, which he said were two of the greatest challenges bedevilling the nation.
He said, “Yes, Atiku will win the 2019 Presidency easily because most Nigerians do not want Buhari to continue having failed woefully to meet their basic expectations. They want a change and Atiku has both the goodwill and the resource to win.”
In the same vein, Essien urged the APC to forget about winning governorship election in Akwa Ibom.
He added that contrary to popular opinion, the defection of ex-Governor Godswill Akpabio to its fold will not in any way help the APC win the state in 2019.
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Essien, who was minister under the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, said, “Whoever says that APC will win Akwa Ibom in 2019 because Akpabio’s entry into the ruling party, is merely daydreaming because we know as a fact that the defection of the former governor to that party has actually exacerbated its brewing crisis and dwindled its fortunes.
“Akwa Ibom is one state that will always vote PDP and there is nothing the APC can do to change that. As a matter of fact, Akpabio’s exit from the PDP has made the party stronger in the state and freed governor Emmanuel Udom to perform better and more independently from the shackles of a distracting godfather, who wanted to be worshipped and adored as a god.
“Our candid advice to the APC is to concede defeat and prepare for 2023 rather than engage in endless propaganda of winning Akwa Ibom and how the governor has not performed in their own imagination.
“It is on record that Udom has delivered on most of the promises he made to the people of the state despite the distraction by Akpabio and the huge debts he left behind hanging on the governor’s neck.”