• President has pauperised Nigerians –LP

Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye and Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Against her earlier stance not to support her husband’s re-election bid in 2019, Mrs. Aisha Buhari has now made it clear that President Muhammadu Buhari will get her full support.

She made the disclosure in Lagos, while receiving the  Vanguard Personality of the Year 2017 award.

Speaking through her daughter, Halima Buhari Shettima, who received the award on her behalf, Mrs. Buhari said:  “Let me use this opportunity to state that I support my husband in this call to service and will continue to do so.”

The president’s wife, in her short remarks, thanked the management of Vanguard Media Limited “for this unexpected award, in recognition of my humanitarian efforts towards improving the health and welfare of Nigerians, particularly women, children and less privileged.

“As we are all aware, Nigerians elected this administration based on the trust and confidence they have in my husband; I, therefore, feel that we are here to serve Nigeria to the best of our ability.”

She dedicated the award to Nigerians, especially women.

Meanwhile, Labour Party (LP) has expressed disappointment at the way the President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) has allegedly reduced the vibrant and energetic people of Nigeria to paupers.

In a statement from the factional National chairman of the party, Dr. Mike Omotosho, the party advised President Buhari to leave the stage for a younger person to redirect “the sinking ship of the state.”

“President Buhari may have given his best, but the encumbrances of old age may have conspired to deny him the energy, tact and strategy needed to extricate the nation from economic doldrums,” Labour Party noted, while condemning his declaration to seek re-election.

The statement further read: “Labour is prompted to react to the recent declaration of President Buhari to seek reelection in 2019, on the basis of what we consider as far-reaching implications this decision may have on the destiny of Nigeria.

“Even as we acknowledge the constitutional right of President Buhari to seek reelection, Labour Party, wishes to state unequivocally that the three years of the APC and President Buhari’s mandate have, in all honesty, and by all empirical statistics, reduced the vibrant and energetic people of Nigeria to paupers. We, therefore, advise the president and his colleagues in the old brigade to quit the stage for the young men and women. The indices of a deteriorating economy, the fast disappearing business environment, predicated on poor policy formulation and unimaginative interpretation of economic variables, have produced unenviable records for the Nigerian citizens.”