2019: Buhari won’t talk now, avoiding saboteurs —Presidency

Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president, Femi Adesina, has explained why President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to declare if he will be seeking re-election in 2019.

Adesina revealed in an interview in Abuja at the weekend that President Buhari would not talk about his second term ambition now so that opponents of his government would not sabotage the country.

“You know the peculiarity of Nigeria particularly now. If the president speaks too early, it’s a problem. There is a lot of sabotage in the country.

“So, when you know that, why then do you speak early? I think it makes a lot of sense for you then to keep things close to your chest till it is time for you to then say, ‘ok, I’m running’ by which time they can do less damage,” Adesina explained.

There is no doubt that Buhari has kept his party members and Nigerians in suspense with his silence on his 2019 intension. His refusal to officially declare his intension is already generating speculation that he may at last consider the advice of his former colleagues in the army; erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo and ex-military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida.

Both men have all asked him not to seek re-election but go home and rest.

Adesina, who also spoke on Buhari’s proposed visit to Rivers State, explained why the President would want to visit the oil rich state.

The Presidency had listed Rivers among the states the President would visit over killings by herdsmen, Boko Haram and other criminal elements in parts of the country.

But the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, had faulted the proposed visit, describing it as being motivated for the wrong reasons especially as the President did not formally inform him of any such visit and that the state was not among states in the country under siege as a result of herdsmen attacks.

However, Adesina argued that Buhari’s visit to the state was to use the opportunity to condole with the families of those affected by various killings in the state.

“If he (Wike) doesn’t understand, the rest of the country understands. We understand, other Nigerians understand. Even people in Rivers State understand because on New Year Day, a minimum of 24 people were killed in Omoku.

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“So, is that not crisis? And can you count the number of people that have been beheaded in Rivers State in recent times? People will be killed and heads will be cut off and the assailants will go away with the heads. So, can anybody say that there is no security issue in that kind of place?

“It’s left to the governor. He’s the chief security officer. If he says there’s no security crisis in his state, good luck to him,” Adesina said.

In a situation Wike refuses to welcome the visit, Adesina said, “I am sure he will be formally informed of a date. So, if he now says he doesn’t want the visit, it’s left to him and the Federal Government to decide the next step.

“But the president is visiting so that he can condole with people who lost their loved ones, 24 people minimum, were killed in Omoku. So, those people are the reason. Those people and the many beheaded; relations of those beheaded and their heads taken away are the reason why the president is visiting the state.”

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