TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the presidency’s “continuous reference” to a successor for President Muhammadu Buhari less than a year into his second tenure, is a “direct acceptance of failure and lack of capacity” of his administration.

In a statement on Wednesday, Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the opposition party, asked Buhari to bury whatever interest he has in the 2023 presidential election.

Tunde Bakare, serving overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), had asked Buhari to be involved in the choice of his successor in order not to destroy his legacies.

Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, had replied Bakare, saying that though Buhari is interested in who succeeds him, he will not handpick his successor.

But the opposition party claimed that Buhari’s interest in who takes over the baton of leadership from him “is in direct aggression against the will of the people to freely elect a president as guaranteed by the constitution”

“The party invites Nigerians to note that such continued allusion to a successor by the Buhari Presidency shows that the President and the APC have no agenda for the nation for the next three years,” the statement read.

“It further underscores the hopelessness of the administration and the sorry situation our nation is faced with under President Buhari and the APC.

“It also exposes the reason behind APC’s resort to blackmail, fabrication and attack on well-meaning Nigerians instead of enunciating a direction for its incompetent administration.

“Our party, standing with millions of Nigerians, counsels the Buhari Presidency to bury its confessed interests in the 2023 Presidency and desist from making unsolicited allusions and references to a successor, as failed leaders can only bequeath failure on a people.

“The PDP therefore charges the Buhari Presidency to immediately withdraw the offensive and provocative remark to “hand Nigeria over”, in its response to Rev. Tunde Bakare’s comment on the 2023 Presidency.

“Our party cautions the Buhari Presidency to note that Nigeria is a sovereign nation governed by rules and that nobody, no matter how highly placed, has the power to hand her over to anybody.

“The 1999 constitution (as amended) does not confer the right to install the President of Nigeria on any individual, but on the people of Nigeria through a free, fair and credible election conducted without interference from anybody.”