President Buhari’s childhood friend advises him on 2019 elections

– Senator Abba Ali said President Buhari is medically fit to contest in 2019

– The childhood friend of the president said he should contest fr presidency

– He said no other person has the same pedigree as the president

Senator Abba Ali who is the childhood friend of President Muhammadu Buhari has advised him to contest in the 2019 presidential election saying he is the best man for the job.

In an interview with The Punch, the senator who represented Katsina/Dutsinma senatorial district under the defunct National Party of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983 said many people have alleged that the president was not medically fit.

Ali however insisted that the president was in good shape to contest for the election.

He said: “President Buhari is hale and hearty; let me first clear that impression on his health. Those urging him to resign on health ground have forgotten that God is the creator of mankind and he has the final say on when one will die. I have seen an old man in Katsina here who was in coma for four months, yet the old man thereafter lived for another eight years before he eventually died. I have also seen a situation where a man was seen today in good health and died the following day not as a result of accident but normal natural death.

“That is God for you. So, those saying President Buhari should resign on health grounds are going beyond their limits. They are not God and they are playing God by saying so. Only God knows beyond anybody.

“President Buhari should go for a second term in office. He has started a good job which is acknowledged both within the country and globally and it is better he contests again for a second term in office so that he can finish the good job he has started. Everybody knows that this man is not out to accumulate wealth but to put Nigeria in its appropriate place in the comity of nations. This man is out to see that Nigeria is great again. And he has been doing all within his powers to achieve this. He realises that no country can be great with corruption. So he is fighting it with zeal and he is also tackling insurgency and all forms of criminality.

“He knows that Nigeria needs good infrastructural development and he is pursuing this. Look at the Mambilla power project that has been abandoned. He has resuscitated it. There are other projects being embarked upon by his government to ensure that the Nigerian youths are no longer jobless. So, I strongly support the call for his second term in office. By the time his second term ends, he would have laid a very solid foundation for whoever that is coming after him to leverage on. God, in his own wisdom, made President Muhammadu Buhari to be above board compared to his fellow politicians.

“We are prepared to support him to ensure that his second term bid succeeds and I believe that President Buhari will succeed while his detractors will fail.”

Asked if President Buhari is the only politician that can handle the menace of corruption in the country, the senator said: “Based on my experience in politics and with my age, I am saying it with all seriousness that I have not seen anybody among the current crop of politicians in the country who has a good intention like President Buhari. Many of them have amassed enormous wealth meant to take care of their people. Many are still stealing blindly. President Buhari stands out among the current political class in Nigeria. I will rather encourage him to go for a second term so that there will be sanity in the political sphere.”