APC ticket: Senator asks Buhari, Atiku to withdraw

The senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, Kabiru Gaya, on Thursday, appealed to a former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); and a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to step down for Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso in the struggle for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress.

Gaya, who was also a former governor of Kano State, stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja.

He said since Buhari and Atiku were elder statesmen, they should allow a younger Kwankwaso to be the candidate of the APC.

Gaya said, “I am not trying to introduce politics into the situation but we have to tell ourselves the truth. Governor Kwankwaso was a minister of defence, and now a serving governor. He was a legislator, once being a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

“He was also Special Adviser to the President on Dafur. He was a member of the Niger Delta Development Commission, hence he has the credentials. He is a young man too. He can work for 18 hours a day.

“I believe that all our elders and leaders in the APC would support him. If you look at the situation in other countries, their citizens are going for young people to become their president.

“Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama for instance were young men who became president, having youthful hair but grew grey hair in power because of mainly the external problems that their country was facing.

“We won’t mind if Kwankwaso is elected president, he will grow grey hairs in the course of tackling Nigeria’s internal problems. Look at how he had ensured peace in Kano. He will do the same for the country, being a former minister of defence.

“As governor, his budget is 75 percent capital project while 25 percent is for recurrent expenditure. If he can come to the federal level and replicate that, Nigeria will be very happy. Kano is the most beautiful state in Nigeria today, both during the day and at night.”