TheCable

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says his principal has not given Nigerians any reason to vote him out in 2019.

In an article he penned on Sunday, Shehu described the Muhammadu Buhari administration as one that “has something for everyone”.

According to the presidential spokesman, Buhari’s motivation to stay in office beyond 2019 is borne out of the need to prevent the squandering of “gains made from 2015”.

“The thing about second term in all political climes is that voters must have a practical reason to vote for someone,” Shehu wrote.

“President Buhari has not given anyone an excuse not to choose him on this count. His is an administration that has something for everyone.

“An important motivation for President Buhari’s bid for second term is that the gains made from 2015 should not be frittered.”

Shehu said Buhari is not obsessed with the power and wealth, but rather he’s interested in “passionately” growing Nigeria’s economy.

“Buhari is not involved in corruption and is not desperate for the office,” he said.

“He is among the few leaders we have who are not obsessed with money, cars and homes but working passionately for the country’s economy, peace and safety.

“If a corrupt politician wins, we will go back to where we were in 2015.

“Supporters who talk about a noticeable loss of faith by some must note that there is nothing permanent in politics. Many of the allies will, in pursuit of power, come back to the APC, being the party with superior power.”

He said “unrealistic expectations” are preventing people from acknowledging the achievements of the Buhari-led administration.

According to him, this has caused the president to become a “victim of the tyranny of expectations”.

“In democracies around the globe, second terms by incumbents are usually harder to get simply because, somehow, there is always some kind of anti-incumbency leading to a loss of faith among those supporters,” he said.

“For President Buhari, who won with massive votes in 2015, his major challenge is to do as well as he did, or even better.

“He came to power with a lot of expectations and Nigerians had, justifiably placed very high hopes on him.

“As we said sometimes back, he as a consequence, has became a victim of the tyranny of expectations.

“The weight of unrealistic expectations has evidently blinded many of the people from seeing the revolutionary changes happening across the nation.

“Nigerians expected him to undo the damage in several decades of misgovernance and naturally, many are already feeling frustrated that he hadn’t done that in three years.”