Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, says President Mohammadu Buhari’s statement in 2011 that he would be president for one term only was not applicable anymore.
This came barely 24 hours after the president officially announced his intention to recontest next year on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The President had in February 2011 told a newspaper that he would not serve for more than one term of four years if elected president of the country.
Adesina while speaking on national television noted that the process of seeking re-election will not affect governance and hinted that several groups had continually appealed to President Buhari over the last one year to re-contest, long before he declared his intentions.
Meanwhile, former minister and Chieftain of the APC, Prince Tony Momoh, has insisted that Buhari never told Nigerians he would run for only one term in 2011.
Momoh said the president only proposed running for a term while he contested on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) before the merger with the APC through which he became president, insisting that President Buhari had a right to change his mind, especially since he is not seeking re-election for a third term like erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo.
However, the National Chairman, African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ralph Nwosu, has described the president’s declaration as a show of lack of integrity.
The 74-year-old president has since 2016 suffered serious ill-health and had embarked on, at least, three medical vacations abroad, the latest being in 2017 in which he stayed away for months while Vice President Yemi Osinbajo acted as president.
Photo Credit: AFP PHOTO / STEFAN HEUNIS
