I’ll not be available for future elections, Buhari says in New Year letter to Nigerians. Does he have a choice?

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he would not be available to stand for the 2023 presidential elections, saying he would be standing down in 2023.

According to the President, who made the declaration in a New Year letter to Nigerians, he would not also be available for future elections in the country.

Buhari, who started his second tenure in office on May 29, 2019, however said he would ensure that the electoral process is strengthened both in Nigeria and across the region, where several ECOWAS members go to the polls this year.

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In the message titled: “A Letter from the President at New Year” and personally signed by him, President Buhari said fighting corruption, improving the economy and combating insecurity would remain the planks of his administration in the new year.

He said: “I will be standing down in 2023 and will not be available in any future elections. But I am determined to help strengthen the electoral process both in Nigeria and across the region, where several ECOWAS members go to the polls this year.”

The President said the Federal Government would complete 47 road projects including roads leading to ports and many bridges this year.

Though President Buhari has said he won’t be available to stand elections any longer, it is curious why he would bother to tell Nigerians because even he wants to be available or not, the laws of the land forbids it, as the tenure of presidents and governors are pegged to two terms, which he is already on.

It would be recalled that there had been rumours of a third term agenda in the offing, eliciting negative comments from Nigerians, who have shown readiness to  resist any attempt at staying behind in the saddle beyond the constitutional two terms.

The case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo comes to mind and the popular uproar that attended it, sending the third term plot into total oblivion.

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