I am really prepared for the primary because this is a game that I have participated in more than the others.
In other words, I have been involved in primary election since the early 90s, and that has given me a lot of experience when it comes to primaries whether they are direct or indirect because we have participated in both types of primaries.
The perception that the ticket is there for Buhari to take is a mistaken perception because Buhari has never participated in any primaries. In the three elections he contested he was simply given the tickets. He did not go through any primaries. I believe that is not going to be helpful to him in this very case.
As of today, among the five of us who are going to participate in the primaries I am the only one who is running around the country. Nobody else is doing that. Nowadays delegates have become more enlightened than before.
Most of them are very educated and most of them want to engage their candidates in discussions on what is it they have for them, for the electorate and for party. If they have not seen you, not to talk of interacting with you, how would they vote for you?
APC is not a party that is dominated by the influence of governors. In other words, the governors trying to force delegates to vote even against their own conscience like it happens in the PDP. This is a party that wants to bring about change. And that really wants to allow people to make choices based on their own convictions.
So I have seen in a few states where we have governors; where I was very well received, and I had access to all the delegates, to talk to them, interact with them, and also to listen to all their own problems, and I like it and enjoyed it because you get to know quite a lot of things.
You think you know all the problems, but when get down the bottom-line and then you begin to listen to ordinary people who live ordinary lives and you find there is a lot you learn. I think all these experiences give me confidence that I have an edge over the rest of them. I know it is not easy. It is difficult.
The physical terrain, going round the country is not good particularly, in terms of the road infrastructure, very bad roads. And you fly all over. I have never seen an election period so short like this one. So, for you to be able to cover the entire country, you need to be flying, sometimes covering two or three states in a day.
Thank God most of the states I have covered them. The only thing is that you cannot stay too late because when it is dark most of the airports don’t operate. Only few airports operate in the night in this country.
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