Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida has disowned a statement authored on his behalf by his spokesman Kassim Afegbua.
Afegbua had announced in statement that Babangida advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted Babangida as describing Afegbua’s the statement as the personal views of the writer.
The former head of state told the NAN that he has unfettered access to Buhari, therefore would prefer to speak to him personally if he has any advice to offer. “Let me categorically state that as former President and statesman, I have unfettered channel of communication with the highest authorities without sensational public correspondence, therefore those views expressed over there are personal views of the writer.”
Speaking on Channels Television’s political programme Sunday Politics, Afegbua insisted that Babangida, a known member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is in support of a generational change and has not instructed him to withdraw the statement.
He noted that the statement is not an open letter to Buhari but an indication of the former head of state’s impression of the state of the nation.
Meanwhile, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has described as apt the declaration by former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida that President Muhammadu Buhari should not seek a re-election in 2019, saying it is yet another pointer to the fact that Nigerians across divides have reached a consensus against him and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party said General Babangida’s position on the need for a dynamic, nationalistic and development-driven leadership is a direct reflection of the feelings and aspirations of Nigerians and completely captures the direction of the repositioned PDP for a better Nigeria.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Sunday, said the fact that General Babangida’s declaration on President Buhari is coming on the heels of a similar declaration by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has further vindicated PDP’s position on the misrule of the Buhari administration and the APC.
The PDP further described as an understatement, General Babangida’s reflection that the Buhari administration and its APC has polluted the nation’s “leadership actuality” adding that it is not unmindful of the yearnings of Nigerians to use the platform of the repositioned PDP to propagate a new coalition that would return the much desired new atmosphere in the polity by producing the president that will acceptable to the majority of Nigerians.
The statement said in part: “It is now obvious to all that the time has come for all Nigerians to jettison all personal interests and divisive tendencies and rally forces under a truly national platform as now embodied in the PDP to rescue our dear nation from total collapse.
“In line with the new consensus for the election of a truly Nigerian President in 2019, the repositioned PDP is completely open as the epicenter of the much desired new broad-based political engagement of all Nigerians in their aspirations irrespective of creed, tribe or class.
“The repositioned PDP presents that credible platform, re-engineered with best democratic standards for unhindered accommodation of all interests from all parts of the country in our collective search for a new beginning.
“We therefore urge all Nigerians, particularly our leaders across board, to join forces with the PDP to once again return the nation to its pride of place as a thriving economy and a truly democratic nation come 2019.”
On its part, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to heed the advice of former Nigerian leaders, namely Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida not to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Only on Sunday, Babangida told Buhari to forget his presidential ambition in 2019, coming on the heels of Obasanjo’s similar advice two weeks earlier, citing the poor performance of his administration.
Spokesman of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said this in reaction to call made by Babangida, which also tallied with the one earlier made by Obasanjo, saying the call by the two leaders is a clear statement they were concerned about the goings-on the country under the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration of President Buhari.
According to Afenifere chieftain, who spoke on phone with the Nigerian Tribune, what Obasanjo and Babangida said to Buhari in respect of his touted ambition for 2019 poll, is an encouragement to Nigerians that the two leaders were speaking their minds out the stage of the country’s history, saying Buhari and those who had ears should listen to the admonition.
“Well, in the mouth of two witnesses, the holy book says, such account or statement is true. What General Babangida and General Obasanjo are saying is a clear statement that they are concerned about what is going on in the country and, therefore, it is an encouragement that the two elder statesmen are speaking out and we think those who have ears should listen.
“So those who have ears should listen to the clear statements from the two elder statesmen, let President Buhari listen to them. And well, it doesn’t listen, I think the Nigerian people are going to note it against him that he was told, but he refused,” he said.
The Afenifere spokesperson said the two former Nigerian leaders must be speaking from information in their possession, even as he asserted that they were not frivolous by whatever means.
“What is clear at this stage is that those who are talking that is the former Heads of State I think they have their information. I don’t think they are frivolous,” Odumakin said.
Speaking further, the Afenifere chieftain decried the way the Buhari allies had embarked on the campaign to have him as Nigeria’s president come 2019 while threatening to ensure the mission was accomplished at all cost.
He warned should President Buhari have his way in 2019, given the way the country had been managed in his first tenure, Nigeria would seize to exist.
“By the way, they have started the campaign for Buhari. I think the Miyetti Allah is saying they would fight it, they would do anything. So the message they are sending is clear, I think some of the allies have agenda. And see what has happened in his first term in office, to say that the nation should go through the same agony in another four years, it means that nation would die,” Odumakin warned.