RABI’U Musa Kwankwaso says he is more popular than President Muhammadu Buhari in the northern part of the country which has been the stronghold of the president.

Kwankwaso told Premium Times in an interview that he would easily defeat Buhari in the 2019 presidential election if he secures the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket in the tomorrow’s primaries in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

He said Buhari’s huge fellowship has waned in the North because of widespread hunger and poverty. “Now they have opened their eyes. The blind people, because they are hungry, have to open their eyes to look for food. So nobody is blind now.”

He said even Buhari knows that if he emerges the PDP candidate, the president cannot defeat him in the election “Everybody knows it, including the president himself. He knows if I get the ticket, I will defeat them.”

Kwankwaso who is one of the 12 aspirants for the main opposition party presidential ticket said he as the capacity to solve the insecurity in the country.  “The issue of Muslims and Christians, herders and farmers, 419, all sorts of things we have today will be by the grace of God, things of the past. This is because we have the experience, we have the capacity to do it.”

He hinges his hope on Kwankwasiya, a red cap wearing movement that he started when he was the governor of Kano State.

“Today, in every house, especially here in Northern Nigeria, you get at least one person who is a member of the Kwankwasiya Movement. Whether he or she is putting our colour, the red cap or not, you have one, maybe the driver or the cook, the cleaner, or the son, or the wife or the man the leader of the house himself.

“So, we are very strong and I think I am the only person with that strength. If I get the ticket, I will come with millions of people into the contest for the support of my candidature as members of Kwankwasiya.”

On tomorrow’s primaries,  Kwankwaso said has a brighter chance of securing the PDP ticket than other aspirants because of his experience and capacity.

“You see, everybody knows that I have a lot of advantage over and above other aspirants in the race now in our party, the PDP. I am sure you know my antecedents. I was a civil servant, an engineer in the Kano State Civil Service for about 17 years. I joined politics in 1992 when I left service in 1991. I contested and became the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives during the SDP and NRC days.

“When the Third Republic was truncated, I went back and contested election again to come for the Constitutional Conference of 1994/1995 and became governor from 1999 to 2003, minister of defence, during the Obasanjo administration.

“I was in Darfur and Somalia presidential envoy and in 2007, I was appointed a member representing North West in the NDDC. After that, I went and contested an election in 2011 and became governor for the second time, in Kano.

“And in 2015, I contested the APC primary election with the incumbent president and came second. I am now a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You can see from what I told you about my experiences as a civil servant and politician. It is very difficult to get anybody with this sort of experience.

“Not only that. As a politician, we have done so much, especially the mobilisation under the Kwankwasiya Movement.”

He explained that the Kwankwasiya Movement is based on the ideology of Amino Kano who was popular for his pro-poor orientation.

Meanwhile, the PDP in Lagos has elected Jimi Agbaje as the flagbearer in the state primary that just ended.

He polled 1,100 votes to defeat his rival Adedeji Doherty who scored 742 votes in the party’s primary election, reports Channels Television.

Agbaje was the PDP candidate in the 2015 governorship election but lost to incumbent governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

He would be contesting against the APC candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu,  in the February 2019 election.