From Lagos to Abuja, Kaduna to Calabar, Sokoto to Yenagoa, concerned Nigerians are asking whether President Muhammadu Buhari will seek re-election next year. They now have clues that can lead to the answer, well, an indefinite one. First, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo does not want President Buhari to do so for reasons of age and ill-health.
In a letter to the President, Chief Obasanjo enumerated the various ills committed by the administration and pointedly asked him to consider taking a deserved rest when his tenure expires in May next year. Earlier, however, President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, also declared that the President’s health could determine whether he would seek re-election in 2019 or not.
It will be recalled that concerns about the President’s health reached a climax, last year, during his one hundred and four days of medical trip abroad, amid rumours that the man had passed on.
As Mr. Adesina pointed out, “Health is wealth. The President is not a frivolous person. If he thinks that his health cannot carry anything, he will not do it. So, of course, his health will matter a lot. It will be very important. But we need to give glory to God for the way he is now.”
The presidential spokesman reiterated the commitment of his boss to leaving a legacy of non-interference in the outcome of elections conducted by the country’s electoral umpire. “If it is the only thing he does, he wants to give free and fair elections to the country; elections that are acceptable,” he said.
Mr. Adesina cited elections conducted so far under the Buhari administration and won by the opposition, noting that things could have gone differently had the governing party chosen to wield federal might. “But you saw the two recent elections in Anambra. If APC had wanted to overrun Anambra using federal might, it would have done so and would have won”.
As the presidential spokesman insisted, “We have to wait until President Buhari blows the whistle. You can’t start a race until the whistle is blown.” But Chief Obasanjo has blown his own whistle – he believes President Buhari should thank God for keeping him alive to finish his tenure and quietly bow out for a younger, healthier person to take over the mantle. Many Nigerians can identify with this view.
