President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met with seven governors at the Presidential Villa, shortly after observing the Jumma’at prayer at the Villa mosque. Among the governors were Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano; Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe; Sani Bello of Niger; Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa; Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Simon Lalong of Plateau.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed El-Rufai said it was a normal for them to observe the Friday prayer at the Villa mosque.
On whether it had anything to do with 2019 elections, El-Rufai affirmed that they were in support of the policies and leadership style of President Buhari and would want him to continue in 2019.
“We are all politicians and those of us that you see here want the President to contest for a second term of office, so everything is about 2019. There is no hiding that. and we have no apologies for that because we believe in the President and we want him to keep running the country in the right direction. So people can speculate about 2019 but as governors, most of us are first term governors, and we are interested in continuity and policy stability so we want the President to continue,” El-Rufai stressed.
Commenting on the cases of conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje said: “The President has already met with stakeholders including some governors who have been having this issue in their states and a suggestion was put forward by the Minister of Agriculture concerning colonies and I think eventually that will be the solution.”
