President Muhammadu Buhari has broken his silence on his reelection
plan as he declared on Monday that Nigerians will support him in 2019.
There have growing speculations that because of his age, ill-health
and poor performance in office, that the President may not seek another
term at the State House. Born on December 17,1942, Buhari will by 76 years in 2019.
The President, has however, dismissed as “utterly ridiculous and
unfounded” the statement that Nigerians would abandon him in 2019
because of his failure to govern the country well.
He was reacting to allegations by his former aide and member of his
defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Alhaji Buba Galadima,
that majority of Nigerians would not support him if he seeks
re-election in 2019.
In a statement issued through his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, the
President asserted that ordinary Nigerians are the backbone of his
mandate and the only reason he ran for the office is to protect them
against the “rapacious merchants of corruption, who have held Nigeria
back for decades.”
Shehu posited that Galadima’s calculation and prediction were utterly
confused and misleading, stressing that ordinary Nigerians were solidly
behind Buhari because he is not “stealing their money and their future.”
Shehu said: “The President’s enormous goodwill remains ever strong
because the people are convinced the President is acting in their best
interest, despite the temporary unintended consequences of reforms.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is far from isolation. He enjoys a very
strategic relationship with ordinary Nigerians. This relationship is as
solid as the proverbial Rock of Gibraltar.
“If Buba Galadima thinks that because he has no role and no job in this
government that means that the President is isolated, he is putting
himself up to ridicule,” he said.
While acknowledging that Galadima is entitled to advance his own
political agenda, Shehu said the elder statesman did not have the right
to decide for ordinary voters and could not speak for them as far as
their loyalty to Buhari is concerned.
Shehu disclosed that Buba Galadima’s disagreement with President
Buhari was based on principle, alleging that the former CPC chief
engaged in the unwholesome practice of collecting money from political
office seekers in the party to advance their ambitions.
He explained that President Buhari was rather committed to ensuring a
level playing field and would not want anyone to link his name to
injustice.
The presidential aide recalled that “Galadima’s disagreement with
Buhari started in 2011 when a group within the party, orchestrated an
organisational mess by which the CPC embarked on the imposition and
substitution of candidates for cash payments at the expense of those
duly and democratically elected”.