- Vows to slash President’s vote tally by one million
A former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State, Senator Kabiru Marafa, says his self-given task is to ensure President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pays for his betrayal by losing one million votes come 2027 Presidential election.
Marafa, who represented Zamfara Central in the Senate from 2011 to 2019, recently dumped the ruling party, accusing President Tinubu of deploying the “use-and-dump” style in his administration.
Making the declaration on ‘Politics Today,’ a Channels Television programme, Marafa said the President must be made to feel the weight of his betrayal through the massive loss of votes at the polls in 2027.
Marafa, while frowning at the President’s exploitative leadership style, said, “I’m going to assure you something today. I’m going to deduct one million out of Mr. President’s votes that he got in 2023. Mark my words. I’m going to do it. I would work for it and by the special grace of God, I’m going to win that”.
He dismissed those who describe him as a political lightweight, insisting that the 2027 elections would prove his relevance and shock doubters beyond imagination.
The former lawmaker, who was Zamfara State Coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign organisation during the 2023 elections, said widespread disenchantment and disappointment in Zamfara politics have brought about realignment of key political figures against the ruling APC.
According to him, “Anybody that you can call substance in Zamfara State, we’re on one side. In 2023, Governor Dauda Lawal, who had never been in politics, was able to secure victory against four former governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives. That tells you the depth of people’s disenchantment.”
Marafa said Tinubu’s campaign in Zamfara succeeded in 2023 only because there were assurances that the APC’s reward system would be reformed but the President has failed woefully to keep that electoral campaign promise.
Going down memory lane, he said, “Let me tell you. In 2023, just to tell the level at which our politics have come up today. Because of the heavy disenchantment of the people, all people, anybody that you can call substance in Zamfara State, we’re on one side.
“And Dauda, who has never been in politics except in 2023, was able to secure victory against all of us. Four former governors, how many senators? How many members of the House of Representatives? This is the same type of sentiment that people canvassed at that time, that who’s Dauda? Dauda cannot do anything. Dauda is this, Dauda is that.
“Now, the only election that we’re able to win was that of Mr. President and courtesy of the message that we took to the people that Mr. President promised that he was going to change the reward system of the APC.
“Because people were not happy with the tail end of Buhari’s government. He promised that he was going to eradicate the concept of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop,’ only for him to entrench it, institutionalize it and it became the state policy of the APC,
The 2023 presidential poll saw Tinubu polling a total of 8,794,726 votes nationwide, representing 36.6 percent of valid ballots, to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
However, in Zamfara, the APC suffered huge setbacks as the party lost the governorship election to the PDP’s Dauda Lawal despite having several influential political figures, including Marafa, in its presidential campaign structure.
