2019: I may run –Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has dropped a hint he might recontest in 2019 for a second term of four years.
He gave the hint jokingly on Tuesday night while interacting with the Nigerian community in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
He is in Abidjan for the fifth European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit.
Though some APC governors had also recently adopted Buhari as the sole candidate of the APC for the 2019 elections, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had declared that the party would follow normal democratic process in choosing its flagbearer in the 2019 presidential election.
Buhari, while apologising for keeping those that came for the interactive session waiting, explained that he insisted on having governors Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom and Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi present so that Nigerians in Côte d’Ivoire from the two states will be happy that he was accompanied by their governors and possibly earn him votes in future.
“First, I want to apologise for keeping you for too long seating; this is because I insisted on the governors attending this meeting. This is why I came along with them so that when we are going to meet you, when you are going to meet the rest of Nigerians, if you tell them that their governors were in the accompany of the president, I think that will be another vote for me in future. I’m very pleased that they were able to turn up,” he said and the hall erupted in laughter and applause.
The president also said his support for President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, despite serving as minister in a PDP-led government was to further confirm his remarks at his inauguration on May 29, 2015, that he belonged to everybody and nobody in particular.
The president, who was reacting to Adesina’s gratitude to his administration for supporting him to get the job which led him to become the first Nigerian to head the continental bank since it was set up in 1964, said: “The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) forgot to mention that he was serving in the PDP government as minister but all the same I picked him and recommended him for AfDB. I think it emphasised what I said during my swearing in that I’m for everybody, I’m for nobody. As long as you are a Nigerian, be prepared to be on the receiving end from me.”
President Buhari also commended Asiwaju Tinubu for bringing him a beautiful piece of information, which he was not aware of “until now.”
The president however did not disclose what “beautiful” piece of information it was but promised to discuss it in detail with the former two-term governor of Lagos State.
