Nigeria’s main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party has raised the alarm after the presidency declared that Nigerians would not abandon President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023 presidential election.
The PDP accused the Presidency of plotting to perpetuate itself in office beyond 2023.
The PDP said this in response to a comment by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, that ‘we believe the PDP and other opposition parties are nursing false hopes of taking power come 2023.”
In its response on Wednesday, the PDP said the claims by the presidency that Nigerians wait for Buhari “to show the way in 2023” had given further credence to the public apprehensions of a self-succession plot by those running the Presidency.
PDP responded in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, with the title, ‘Buhari Presidency’s 2023 Comments Smacks of Self-Succession Plot’.
“Nigerians were jolted when President Buhari’s spokesman, Shehu Garba, publicly announced in Daura, Mr President’s hometown, that President Buhari ‘constitutes a political obstacle’ which those who seek to succeed him, come 2023 ‘cannot dismantle,’ he said.
“Such statement by the Presidency, which is in its last lap of the second and final tenure in office, is not only provocative but also smacks of plots to derail our constitutional democratic order.
“Perhaps the comment by the Buhari Presidency explains why there has been a heavy onslaught against our institutions of democracy as well as the Electoral Act,” he noted.
