The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, at the weekend insisted that there is no barrier to President Muhamnadu Buhari winning the presidential electionin 2019.

Ngige, who addressed journalists in Onitsha after attending an NTA programme said, the President will not have any serious opposition, even as he noted that his (President’s) superlative performance in office in the past three years was enough ground for his victory.

He noted that the scenario in 2015 remains obtainable, adding that the voting pattern has not changed.

The minister said: “The All Progressives Congress (APC) still commands the majority of supporters in the entire Northern states and the Southwestern states of Nigeria and now poised to break new electoral grounds in the south East and the South-South states.”

According to him, the recent defection of politicians from APC to other parties is a non-issue, because as some were leaving, eminent politicians from other political parties were joining the APC.

While describing the defections as a non-issue, he explained that political parties are vehicles used by politicians to get to the same destination.

“People are just changing vehicles and heading to the same destination,” he added.

Ngige advised Igbos to come out en-masse and identify with the APC and Buhari’s second term ambition, stressing that Buhari remains the only person, who, after four more years in office, cannot constitutionally aspire to be president again and power will shift to the southern part of Nigeria.

His words: “If the Igbo support Buhari with their strength and give him at least 50% of the votes from the zone, they will be in a good stead to morally demand the Presidency in 2023 when power shifts to the South.

“Buhari is the only person the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will, after eight years in office, bar from seeking to be the president again.

“If we show our strength by voting APC, then we shall on moral ground make case for the presidency in 2023. The votes for APC should be at all levels of the election in 2019, the president, the Senate, and the House of Assembly.”

On state of the economy, Ngige said that no other government could have managed the economy better than the APC Federal Government led by Buhari when he came into office.

The minister maintained that the situation would have been worse given that the economy was already on a downward spiral, adding that it was Buhari, who along with his lieutenants, brought the country out of recession.