Even if President Muhammadu Buhari had wanted to be silent on his political future to concentrate on development issues for now, it would have been almost impossible given the intensity that has been brought into the political horizon by the apparently resurgent leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
As many observers expected, it looks like the president has jumped into the fray. He might not have been very categorical but he has now given enough indication that despite all permutation about his ill-health and even the performance of his administration being questioned in many quarters, he is interested in a second four-year tenure.
The first hint came at the end of last month. The president had gone to attend the 5th European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. But meeting with some members of the Nigerian community in the country, he betrayed what appeared to be his intention to contest the 2019 presidential election as he tried to explain why he was late for the commencement of the meeting.
According to him, he wanted to be seen in the company of the two state governors, Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi) as well as the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, so that votes may be attracted to him in his future political endeavour.
“First, I want to apologise for keeping you for too long sitting. 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 company of the president, I think that will be another vote for me in the future. I’m very pleased that they were able to turn up, ” he said.
Beyond this hint, Buhari had said nothing about the possibility of his contesting the 2019 presidential election, even though many governors elected under the APC had spoken out in support of a second term for him.
Last week, he was in Kano where he gave further impetus to the swirling rumour that he is, indeed, warming up for the 2019 race. First, APC stakeholders in the state announced to him that they had resolved to adopt him for a second term. Not only that, they offered to buy him the nomination form ostensibly to guard against the 2015 incident where the president was forced to take a loan to purchase the form because he was not rich enough to afford it. The stakeholders, thereafter, threatened to take him before the court if he fails to heed their demand to contest the election.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje specifically said that they wanted Buhari as their sole candidate for the APC in 2019. On his part, the state Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Inuwa Abbas, said their endorsement of the president was based on his achievements in the last two years, especially in the fields of security, war against corruption and the restructuring of the economy.
Abbas said, “Security is important for everyone, not just for Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. It is even more so for us as a commercial and industrial state. We are convinced that you are best for these times when the country has begun to muster energy and resources to develop agriculture, infrastructure and empower the younger citizens.”
According to the presidency, Buhari did not say he accepted or declined the overture but “merely beamed with smiles and went on to underscore the need for unity in the party and among the diverse peoples of Nigeria.”
But he did not exactly disappoint his admirers either as he went on to warn his opponents that with what he had seen in Kano, the base of his support remained impenetrable. He warned menacingly that his opponents who were thinking of extracting votes from Kano should reevaluate their position in view of the massive reception that greeted his arrival in the state for a two-day working visit, saying it “is a message to the opposition’’ that his popularity in the region remains unshaken.
Buhari chose a state dinner organised by the state government to make the declaration thus: ‘‘I am overwhelmed with the massive reception I have received, and definitely since this is partisan politics, I think it has sent a clear message to the opposition.Even going by the details of the election results in 2003, 2007 and 2011, it was very clear that nobody could even dare to rig my scores from the elections in Kano. It has been so consistent and I don’t think I have the vocabulary to express my thanks to the people of Kano. I am very grateful to God and the people of Kano for the complete trust you have in me.”
The President acknowledged that during his drive around the city, the ordinary people on the streets of Kano had asked him to go for four more years after his present tenure by signaling four years with raised four fingers on each hand, ‘’meaning four-plus-four.’’ He then went after the opposition which he said had no business trying to return to power after what he said was their looting of the nation’s resources.
“We will wait and see, if they think Nigerians are ignorant. They have the guts of declaring their intention to reclaim office. Public office holders involved in sharp malpractices will incur the wrath of God. Those assigned into public positions of trust are mortals, they will transit and appear before their creator to answer for the misdeeds carried out while holding forth the position entrusted in their care by the populace,” he said.
However, observers believe that the president may be trying to intimidate his opponents at a time the PDP seems to have regained its bearing and is looking with confidence to the 2019 general electron.
They also say that Buhari who had been reticent about 2019 had been pressured to speak out because of the fast-paced activities in the PDP which had not only reenergised itself in recent time, but had managed to retrieve former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the APC in what has been seen as a major blow to the ruling party, and making the PDP increasingly confident of kicking out the APC in the next election.
The president’s recent forays into the 2019 terrain, including the rekindling of his relationship with Tinubu, is therefore believed to be a move to reassure his supporters that he has the second term tenure high on his agenda. He is thought to have reverted to his base in a shore-up exercise with some critics saying that he has injected a little element of blackmail of the opposition to discourage it from offering him a stiff challenge.
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