Its Official! Buhari to seek second term in office

FILE: President Muhammadu Buhari addressing the All Progressives Congress, National Executive Council in Abuja as Chief Odigie-Oyegun listens with rapt attention

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his intentions to seek a second term in office after many months of speculation in political quarters.

In a tweet by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna he said he Buhari made his intentions known to the All Progressives Congress National Executive Committee. “PMB has just announced to APC NEC his intention to run for a second term of office. Alhamdulillah. – Nasir El-Rufai,” he tweeted.

BREAKING NEWS: PMB has just announced to APC NEC his intention to run for a second term of office. Alhamdulillah. – Nasir El-Rufai

— Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (@elrufai) April 9, 2018

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Similarly, the Nigerian Presidency Twitter account tweeted same thing. “President @MBuhari has just announced his intention to seek the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and contest for a second term of Office in the 2019 elections.”

President @MBuhari has just announced his intention to seek the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and contest for a second term of Office in the 2019 elections.

— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) April 9, 2018

The former general led a short-lived military regime that was overthrown in a coup in 1985.
The announcement by Buhari, a northern Muslim who became the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent at the ballot box, was widely expected although stocks on the Nigerian market fell 1.01 percent on Monday to a three-month low.

“It takes away the concern of an open race which would have fuelled uncertainty,” said a Lagos-based equity sales analyst.

The bond market shrugged off the announcement with the 10-year benchmark debt unchanged at 13.64 percent from its previous session after one trade on Wednesday, traders said.

Buhari took office in May 2015 after vowing to improve security and crackdown on endemic corruption, but Africa’s top oil producer fell into its first recession in 25 years in 2016, largely caused by low crude prices and militant attacks in the Niger Delta, and its recovery remains fragile.

After spending five months in Britain last year being treated for an undisclosed ailment, opposition groups in Africa’s most populous nation and other critics said he was unfit for office and his administration was beset by inertia.

If Buhari is selected to contest the presidential election, it is not clear whom he would face. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which prior to the former general’s 2015 victory had held power since Nigeria adopted civilian rule in 1999, has yet to select a candidate.

“The president said he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to recontest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give NEC the honour of notifying them first,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in an emailed statement.