National
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has
admitted that President Muhammadu Buhari is no longer popular like he was
during the 2015 general election.
“All governments worldwide in between terms lose some degree of
popularity; no question about that,” he told Punch.
“We are having harsh economic times, no question about that and
that does not increase the popularity of any government. It only diminishes it
to some extent. What is different is that, in our case, in spite of the harsh
economic realities, the people still have full confidence, trust.
“I think that is the proper word, in President Buhari, that he
will do his very best to improve their lot and I think the proof of that was
the reaction to the threatened strikes by the labour unions. You can see that
even though people are unhappy, they refused to come out because they
understood.
“They are in pain but they understood why the pain was there and
they trusted the President that he was doing everything within his power to
ameliorate their pain. So yes, there is a lot of grumbling all over the place,
but also there is a lot of trust in Mr. President”, he added.
On internal crisis in some states, including Kano, Bayelsa and
Kogi, Oyegun said APC was attending to each of them.
“In vevery case, we are making progress. Bayelsa should be
concluded in a matter of weeks. Kano is basically a personality thing and we’ve
got everybody to sheathe their swords for now.
“And I think that has happened. Kano has cooled off. We also
have issues in Kogi State which we are also attending to. That is the only way
you know a government that is in power.
“If we were in opposition, there won’t be skirmishes in these
states because there would be nothing to skirmish over but since we are in
power, people are still struggling for relative importance within the system
with an eye on tomorrow.
“These things are normal, they are expected but we’ve developed
that habit of democratic consultation and reconciliation and it is working”, he
added.
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