The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has confirmed that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo be President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election.
Shehu said this while responding to questions from State House correspondents on Monday.
He was reacting to the victories recorded by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Saturday’s bye- elections in the country.
“Decisive victories in senatorial and state assembly elections in Katsina, Bauchi, Kogi and states were an indication that the Buhari/Osinbajo presidential ticket that won the 2015 election will ensure an encore in 2019,” he said.
Shehu said the victories showed that the APC was still popular and that Nigerians have just endorsed the Buhari/Osinbajo joint ticket.
“I like to speak to you about the fabulous shows of the APC in Katsina, Bauchi and Kogi, and even to some extent in Cross River States. All of these coming against the background of Ekiti state,” he said.
“It is clear that from election after election, Nigerians are reposing confidence in the Buhari/Osinbajo presidency. Each of these election victories is considered to be epic in nature because none of these elections was an ordinary election. We are happy that we have won and on behalf of the president and the acting president, we like to say thank you to Nigerians who continue to repose their confidence in the leadership of the APC administration.
“We also want to thank the leadership of the party at the national level, but equally important, to thank all the party’s apparatchiks deployed to all the campaigns and ensured that all the elections were won handsomely by APC.
“So, we are expressing our gratitude to everyone for these that had happened and to say that with this increasing confidence reposed in the president and the acting president, who are determined more than ever before to leave no stone unturned in order to bring the promised change to Nigerians.
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“For a quick review, maybe one, two, three or four lessons can be taken from the victories that the party has been recording.
“First of all is to say that these decisive victories are indications that clearly, Nigerians have spoken that President Buhari maintains his momentum. That these victories place Buhari/Osinbajo presidency in very good stead for next year’s election.
“It is a statement of the fact that the APC will go into election next year with every confidence that the elections will be won and that Nigerians by this statement, will also say that they no longer have time for politics of insult and diversion, mudslinging and ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ politics of the PDP, and equally important is that these election victories are a clear message to the national assembly that all that Nigerians are interested in is that the business of government should go on.”
