Buhari happier than Tinubu over outcome of presidential election – Masari

Following the outcome of the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari on Wednesday, met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura.

The meeting which lasted for about an hour was held behind closed doors.

It was meant to felicitate the president for producing a successor from within the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, as well as review preparations for the gubernatorial elections in Katsina State on March 11.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect following the conclusion of the collation of results in Abuja.

Tinubu had defeated two major contenders in the keenly-contested presidential race, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, to clinch victory.

Masari was accompanied on the visit to Buhari’s country home by his close aides and other government functionaries.

Asked how the President felt about the elections, Masari said: “He (Buhari) is more than delighted, first of all for APC to have won this presidential election and in a peaceful manner. Like I said in Katsina, we had the elections without loss of lives, without any violence recorded, so he is very pleased and happy about it and reports coming from across the nation that has been reaching him had indicated quite a successful election.

“And you know as President leaving office and getting a successor from his party, you don’t need to ask me if he was happy. The answer is positive and he is happier than the candidate because this is his election; it’s a verdict on the performance of his government, that is the reason people voted for the APC.”

Also asked how he was preparing for the governorship election in Katsina, he said: “We are getting ready to build on our successes; and also, our failures, to see those areas we need to address so that the gubernatorial election will be won by APC. You know that we delivered all three senatorial seats from Katsina State, we delivered nine members of the House of Representatives out of 15, so you can see that the whole of North West, we are contributing more to the National Assembly than any other state