25th March, 2015
Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State said President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to Bauchi on Monday had diminished the so called Buhari factor in the North East region.
Yuguda said this in an interview with correspondents at the newly inaugurated Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport, Bauchi, on Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s presidential poll.
According to him, the visit is one of the President’s most successful trips to Bauchi.
“The difference is now very clear; the question of opposition or Buhari factor or whatever sentiment, has already diminished.
“And this is by the Grace of the Almighty Allah because He is the only one who can guide and He has guided people aright and the polity has stabilised.
“And they have realised that going for their best candidate devoid of sentiment that is what they should do; that is what is in line with their religious injunction,” the governor added.
Yuguda noted that the president come like a home boy; “he is more like the son of the soil.
“Everybody is jubilant. You can see the ‘Achaba’ (commercial motorcycle riders) union which has over 20,000 motorcycles giving free ride to the public because of Jonathan. If that is the position, Bauchi is hisown.”
The governor predicted total victory for Jonathan at the polls. “What we expect is a clear win of Mr President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
“There will be very wide margin between him and his opposition candidate,” he said.
The governor said PDP was not divided in the state over the primaries that threw up the candidates for the 2015 elections.
“Every PDP member is working together to retain the state and re-elect their presidential candidate.
“Who told you that there was bickering between the party leadership. “This is the Chairman of the party; this is the secretary of the party; this is my Senator (Abdul Ningi).
“This is our governorship candidate, this is my younger brother the minister (Bala Mohammed of FCT).”
He described the party primaries in the state as transparent and warned those who did not witness it to avoid making negative comments about them.
“I believe it was the most transparent primaries ever held in the history of Nigeria,” Yuguda said.
The governor attributed the developmental strides recorded during his tenure to prudent management of resources and proper public accounting.
He said the state maintained its aesthetics because “we introduced the culture of being clean because being a predominantly Muslim environment, Islam leverages on cleanliness.
“They say that cleanliness is next to Godliness. Our people have adopted the culture and we have also introduced measures on how to teach people how to keep their environment clean.”
He said in addition the Bauchi State Agency for Waste Disposal, “we have engaged the tipper operators.
“In fact, we engaged about 30 to 40 daily. We pay them on a monthly basis to carry all the garbage to keep them outside the town,” he added.