Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello has urged members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to embark on aggressive marketing of President Muhammadu Buhari as the party’s presidential candidate or risk losing the 2019 poll.

Speaking on Thursday night at a dinner organized by President Buhari to host youth political appointees at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, Bello said the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not be a pushover and should therefore not be taken for granted in next year’s elections.

While highlighting some accomplishments of the current administration in the past three years, Bello noted that although Buhari remains the best leader for the country till 2023, the issue of public perception about him must be taken seriously by the APC to ensure his victory.

His words: “All that the crooked PDP is offering Nigerians is that ‘corruption is better than incompetence’. 2015 was about change, 2019 will be about progress.

“As members of the APC, we will not deny that our party has a huge task in the 2019 general elections. The elections will never be a walk-over. The PDP will not be a push-over.

“And we must take nothing and no one for granted. If we cannot defeat PDP, maybe we should not be influencers or we should not even go to politics. President Buhari is a good product, we know but we must go out to sell him to Nigerians.

“Perception is very critical in times like this. If we fail, God forbid, the ugly narrative of PDP will overtake the land. Our score card is rich enough.

“We must market the incredible accomplishments of Mr. President and that of his administration to every voter and in a language he or she understands. If we fail, God forbid, the adverse narrative being put out by the PDP and other propaganda machine will dominate the land and shape perceptions.

“If we don’t market our product very well, try our politically exposed offenders using long extant laws which previous leaders were not willing to deploy against cronies, accomplishments will be mistaken for extra-judicial measures and disdain for the rule of law.

“If we do not put Mr. President’s achievements before our people so that they can sight it themselves, we will be agreeing with the PDP that  corruption which it is offering again, is somehow better than the alleged incompetence of the APC.”