Shettima: How Igbos Worked for Buhari’s Victory

Governor Kashim Shettima

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, on Wednesday described Igbos from the South-east as silent forces that played significant roles in the victory of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari at the just concluded presidential elections.

Shettima, who said contrary to some claims that Buhari was elected by four geopolitical zones without the South-east and the South-south, noted that the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-east stood very firm to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from coming out with outrageous votes as the case was in 2011. He said it was for that singular act that the votes garnered by Buhari in other geopolitical zones were enough to return him as president-elect.

The governor spoke in Maiduguri while addressing supporters after his return from Abuja where he went on Tuesday night to join other leaders of the APC ahead of Buhari’s acceptance speech.

“Buhari’s election was an pan-Nigerian movement. I have heard some political analysts making some wrong conclusions that the Ibos in the South-east didn’t contribute significantly to Buhari’s victory but I think they are missing the point because there are two key contributions to winning elections. One is to give votes and the other is to prevent opponent from rigging and both have equal relevance. In the 2011 elections, the PDP got a combined figure of about seven million votes in the southeast, some of these states recorded or so they claimed, having almost 100 per cent voter turn out. But in 2015, Igbos in the South-east, especially our leaders in the APC stood very firm, some of them put their lives on the line, resisted all kinds of humiliation and at the end, they prevented another seven million votes from coming out.

“We all saw what happened in Rivers, if that was repeated in the southeast it would have been a major source of concern for all Nigerians but the Ibos did very well by resisting every step against Buhari, so they are heroes as far as I am concerned.”

SOURCE: This Day