2019: Buhari fears APC may not match opposition’s financial muscle 

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed fears that APC may not be able to match the financial resources of the opposition in the 2019 elections.

He was speaking on Friday when he received members of the Buhari Media Organisation who paid him a courtesy visit at the presidential villa.

The president also said he sympathised with those trying to defend him and his administration because it is a “herculean task in the midst of opposition”.

The organisation was the media wing of the APC campaign team in 2015, then named Buhari Media Support Organisation.

Buhari said: “I don’t think I can thank you enough for your steadfastness under very difficult circumstances. It is not easy to defend this administration and more in particular to defend me. But your consistency has given me a lot of confidence. And I know you are doing it as a sacrifice both physical, mental and material.

“Because, as I keep on saying, the opposition now are sitting on incredible resources which I am afraid we might not match it at all. For that reason the opposition is sponsoring mischief from different angles which in spite of the incumbency of government we cannot absolutely stop. It is you that are fighting it and I cannot thank you enough for that.”

He once again referred to the overthrow of his military government in 1985 and how he spent one and a half years in detention.

“Most of the people I jailed had given back all what they have taken before I was jailed. I spent 18 months in detention and luckily they did not find anything against me and I was released,” he said.

“But my problem was that there was a journalist from Edo State, I have forgotten his name now, he wrote that my mother had to die to save me. Because I was only released when my mother died to go and bury her, of course you know according to the Muslim tradition you are buried where you die.

“So I can remember most of you here sitting, the sacrifices you have made in terms of materialism even losing friends to continue to support me. I have been here for three years, you have proven to people that you are not here for material things, your opinion is out of sacrifice and the strength of the moral courage you have is the the strength of the physical, it is the strength of losing the friends you have.

“I am sure you are being asked, this support you are busy giving Buhari what the hell do you get out of it? And that is why I commend your steadfastness and I am very grateful for it. And in this country whether people like it or not, they will remain grateful for your courage because you have the courage to do the research, take your time to reply mischivious representation and we are very grateful.”

In his remarks, Austin Braimoh, chairman of the organisation, said they have been making “credible interventions” in the media to further project Buhari.