President Buhari will not return today as many Nigerians thought

The Presidency has given a very strong indication that the nation’s leader will contest in the 2019 Presidential elections. It has also discredited remarks that Buhari will not get any support when he wants to come back as President.

Speaking for the Presidency was Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity. He said that “suggestions that the masses will desert President Buhari in 2019 was unfounded and utterly ridiculous.”

Garba Shehu who gave the statement as a reply to an interview former National Secretary of the CPC party, Buba Galadima, said “the masses are solidly behind Buhari because he is not stealing their money and their future.”

Shehu went on to say: “Ordinary Nigerians are the backbone of his mandate and the only reason he ran for the office is to protect them against the rapacious merchants of corruption, who have held Nigeria back for decades.   Galadima’s calculation and prediction are utterly confused and misleading.

‘’The President’s enormous goodwill remains ever strong because the people are convinced the President is acting in their best interest, despite the temporary unintended consequences of reforms. President Muhammadu Buhari is far from isolation. He enjoys a very strategic relationship with ordinary Nigerians. This relationship is as solid as the proverbial rock.

‘’If Buba Galadima thinks that because he has no role and no job in this government that means President is isolated, he is putting himself to ridicule. Galadima cannot speak for the masses as far as their steadfast loyalty to Buhari is concerned.

“Buba Galadima’s disagreement with President Buhari was based on principle. Galadima’s disagreement with Buhari started in 2011 when a group within the party, orchestrated an organizational mess by which the CPC embarked on the imposition and substitution of candidates for cash payments at the expense of those duly and democratically elected.

“Muhammadu Buhari was embarrassed by the incidents and complaints about the imposition and substitution of candidates, adding that he, as a democrat, would not suppress the will of the people to please selfish interests.

“Consequently he dispensed with the service, such as they are, of Buba Galadima; ran and won the 2015 Elections without them. Let Buba Galadima go to his constituency, stand for election and see what will happen to him.”