President Buhari Will Defeat Atiku In 2019 -Lagos Lawmaker, Bisi Yusuf

A lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Bisi Yusuf has said that the contentious issue of the amendment of Electoral Act was just a way of shifting attention by the National Assembly.

Bisi Yusuf, representing Alimosho Constituency 1 in the Assembly spoke against the backdrop of the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill to law in an interview.

The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated that President Muhammadu Buhari has not done anything wrong according to law. 

Yusuf, who is the Chairman of the House Committe on Public Account (Local) added that nothing could be changed from the electoral law 90 days to elections in accordance with the constitution.

"It is too late to do that except these people want to amend the constitution, which cannot be done now. You cannot change the goal post at the middle of the match. 

"The National Assembly only wants to distract the attention of the people from what is more relevant. It is too ambiguous, what election have they won after using the card reader. It is not really the election, it is robbery. 

"The card reader has checkmated rigging. They don't want that one to happen because it is foreign to them. That is their main agenda, they want to rig elections," he said.

According to him, the attention of the people is not on the Electoral Act, but on the candidates and the election proper.

While dismissing the insinuation that President Muhammadu Buhari was afraid of losing the 2019 election, Yusuf said that there was no candidate that could match the combination of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at this period. He emphasised that Buhari would definitely defeat the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 election.

Commenting on the support being given Atiku by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, the lawmaker said that Obasanjo was not God, and that he was not the only factor that made former president Goodluck Jonathan to lose the 2015 election.

"Obasanjo once said that if he supported Atiku God would not forgive him and that if he should say what Atiku has done, the whole country would catch fire. When people get to a level they would start derailing, which is what is happening to Obasanjo.

"Look at what President Buhari has done, we have not even started campaigning. When all the ministers roll out what Buhari has done you would see. The fight against corruption is even enough, the bane of Nigeria is corruption. 

"Diversification of the economy is going on, agriculture is attracting a lot of attention now. What else do you want that Buhari has not done," he said.

On insecurity and the fight against the dreaded Boko Haram sect in the north, Yusuf pointed out that what is happening under President Buhari could not be compared to that of former president Goodluck Jonathan. 

He explained that the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa just came back from Maiduguri in Borno State, where he attended a meeting of Conference of Speakers, and that his reports showed there was progress in the fight against Boko Haram. 

His words: "You cannot compare the state of insecurity in Nigeria during Jonathan period to what is happening now. 

"As far as I am concerned, Boko Haram has been dislodged, they are only fighting gorilla war, which is common all over the world. "Someone on the street of London could just take a gun and spray people or they go to club to kill people. It is a phenomenon that would take time to overcome."

While commenting on the demands by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over minimum wage, ASUU strike, and the threat by NUPENG and PENGASSAN to go on strike, the lawmaker said that these were parts of democracy and that President Buhari has enough manpower and wisdom to ensure that they were well handled. 

He stated that this will not affect the election, and that Alhaji Atiku was never an alternative to Buhari. 

"You say this wife would not good, would you now go for a witch or an evil woman. Atiku can never be compared to Buhari. See our image abroad and the way world leaders are receiving our President. 

"People are getting wiser. The campaign would be scientific, it is not about what I would do, but what I have done. 

"We gave responsibility to Atiku in the past and we saw what he could do. We have given Buhari responsibility and we see what he is doing. "16 years of nothing to write home about and three years of reconciliation and reconstruction, you can see the difference," he stated. 

On his re-election bid in 2019, Bisi Yusuf said that the fact that there were others competing with him made it interesting. 

He however, declined to give his strategy, saying that as a politician, he would keep that as a secret.

"Somebody was given a mandate and he did it well. I live with my people; I have never slept outside my base. I know my people and they know me very well. It is not about what I will do, but what I have done. The records are there for people to see and we are moving to the next level now," he said.