TheCable

Aisha Alhassan, minister of women affairs, says President Muhammadu Buhari told the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that he would not seek re-election in 2019.

The minister said this in an interview with Reuters.

She claimed Buhari said he was only going to run for a single term to clean up the mess of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“In 2014/2015 he said he was going to run for only one time to clean up the mess that the (previous) PDP government did in Nigeria. And I took him for his word that he is not contesting in 2019,” she was quoted to have said.

Mixed reactions have assailed Alhassan’s open support for former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s expected bid for the presidency in 2019.

In a video, which went viral on Wednesday, the minster declared Abubakar as “president 2019”. She later affirmed her position in an interview with the BBC Hausa, which she told she does not mind being sacked for supporting her “godfather”.

TheCable could not get the reaction of the presidency. Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said he could not comment on the issue.