President Muhammadu Buhari, according to the office of the president, is devoted to helping Bola Tinubu in the upcoming presidential election, but he will not permit political campaigns to interfere with his “functions and duties,” according to the office.
The president pledged to support all All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates when visiting the US, according to the president’s spokesperson Garba Shehu in a statement on Wednesday.
Following the national launch in Jos, Plateau State, there have been significant complaints in some quarters over the President’s absence from campaigns.
Shehu said,
“Speaking to the Nigerian community in Washington DC in the course of his recent visit to the United States, President Buhari stressed what he said all the time that he is ready to campaign for the party’s victory in the general elections next year.
“President Muhammadu Buhari assures the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidates in the elections next year that he is ready at all times to campaign for the presidential candidate and all party candidates with “full energy and conviction.”
While the president “remains loyal to party politics,” Shehu continued, “the President’s functions and obligations will equally be upheld at times.”
Since the elections began a few weeks ago, many Nigerians, including party loyalists, have questioned the president’s absence from the APC presidential rallies.
Despite being named the chairman of the APC’s Presidential Campaign Council, Shehu’s remarks imply that the president might not play a significant role.
Buhari has visited a number of formal events both inside and outside of the nation throughout the campaign period, including the recent summit between the US President and African leaders in Washington.
The president isn’t present during Bola Tinubu’s political campaigns because he “still has governance of the country to administer and wants to end extremely strong,” according to Festus Keyamo, spokesman for the APC Presidential Campaign Council and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment.
In an interview with the Daily Independent, Keyamo stated that the president wholeheartedly supports Tinubu but does not see the 2023 election as a life-or-death situation.
“The voice of Olusegun Obasanjo captured the Olusegun Obasanjo-Umaru Musa Yar’Adua crisis. He claimed that for him, the 2007 presidential race was a life-or-death contest. In Nigerian politics, that was the first time a sentence had escalated. Do-or-die election.
“President Buhari is not a part of that do-or-die group. You can close your eyes and go to sleep knowing that you have his support if he gives it to you.
But he doesn’t go all the way to do-or-die. In addition to expressing his support, he declared that no one would use force or money to sway Nigerians or the results of the presidential election.
“What Buhari did was what a trustworthy leader ought to do. He’s chosen to serve as the APC presidential campaign council’s chairman.
“He was present in person at the Jos flag-off. When it works into his schedule, he will show up at specific campaign locations as the election campaign continues across the nation to demonstrate his support for Asiwaju.
He still has to oversee the nation’s administration, and he intends to end his term as president strongly. That explains why his diary these days shows a lot of engagements.
However, let me reassure you that President Buhari is fully behind Asiwaju and is not seeing the situation as a life-or-death one like Obasanjo.
