From: Ismail Omipidan
Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna central senatorial district on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that political elite who were already mounting pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to seek a second term in office were doing so for selfish political gains.
Without Buhari running in 2019, he noted, the political elite, most of whom are serving APC governors, who, like President Buhari, were also serving their first term, would lose political relevance and the lost may signal their political death.
Following the revelation by the Women Affairs minister, Hajia Aisha Alhassan, that she would not be supporting President Buhari for the presidential race in 2019, should he decides to run, Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, who was the first governor to visit the Presidential Villa after ALhassan’s outburst, told Nigerians that a group to which he (el-Rufai) belongs would everything within their means to ensure President Buhari runs again.
He told Journalists at the Presidential Villa that “We have a group. We have Buharists amongst governors, ministers. Our group wants to ensure that President Buhari runs in 2019. Our political ideology is to support whatever President Buhari wants to support. If he chooses not to run, he will tell us which direction to go.
“We are Buharists. We don’t have any personal ambition, we don’t have any personal aspiration and we are waiting for him to decide. And we are making every political effort and creating every structure to achieve this.”
But in an apparent reference to that position, Sen. Sani, in his characteristic manner, took to his Facebook page, on Tuesday, to lampoon all those angling to pressure President Buhari to run again, saying that the decision to run or not, lies solely with the president, adding that the President has been in politics long enough to take that decision, and that it was up to him to so decide.
According to the senator, the ordinary Nigerians, who want President Buhari to run again in 2019, are doing so out of genuine love and desire for the President to lead them to the promised land, adding that though the country still needs the president’s service, it was however up to the president to decide, if he was “willing and fit” to continue beyond 2019.
“Whether Baba (Buhari) will seek reelection or not remains his individual decision to make. He is old enough and has been in politics and government longer than anyone in his party or cabinet as to know what to do and the right time to do it.
“He is the best person to judge and decide for himself what to do. The nation still needs his services but it’s still up to him to decide if he is willing and fit to provide more or not. The political elite in habit of applying pressure are pressure cookers and they see Baba (Buhari) as a meal and a mill.
“Baba (Buhari) is like a good driver who has driven for a long distance and so much cherished by his passengers, whether he is willing to cover more distance is best decided by him. Every leader chooses his seat and space in the ship of his and his country’s history. The reasons the masses want Baba (Buhari) to continue is not the same as the reason the elites want Baba (Buhari) to seek reelection .The former see him as a good force who should continue to lead them to the land of their dreams or the promised land; the later see him as the lifebuoy for their political survival and relevance,” Sani, declared.