News
2023: I Will Not Pick My Successor – Buhari Replies Bakare
The Presidency on Monday replied popular Cleric, Tunde Bakare, who advised President Muhammadu Buhari to pick his successor for the 2023 Presidential election.
President Buhari’s Spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said that the President though interested in who would succeed him, “will not pick a successor”.
Recall that Bakare on Sunday had advised the President to put in place a succession system, saying leaders in countries like China, Singapore and South Africa put in place such succession plans.
Read Also: Bakare Advises Buhari To Influence Who Becomes His Successor
“We must also learn from Nelson Mandela who stepped aside after one term, but not without positioning the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa,” Bakare, the Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly said.
“Therefore, even as we build institutions of democratic governance, a key responsibility that history has bestowed on President Muhammadu Buhari at this turning point in our journey to nationhood is to institutionalise systems of accurate succession that will build and sustain the Nigeria we desire. This is a task that must be done”.
In his response on Monday, while appearing on a Channels Television programme, Adesina said that the that like anyone in a position of authority, Buhari has an exit plan.
“By May 2023 God willing he would have finished his second term as president, he would not have stood for another term and he will be exiting. So, he has that at the back of his mind.
“Pastor Bakare said he should be interested in who succeeds him, yes I’m sure the president will be interested in who succeeds him but he will not manipulate the process, to pick a Successor.
“The President will not pick a successor. We know him, he is not somebody like that. Will he be interested in the process? Yes, he will. He will ensure that there is a free, fair and credible election; that nobody will come to use money and resources to bamboozle his way into the leadership of the country. It will not happen. The President will ensure free, fair and credible process; but to handpick a successor? No, he will not do that”.
Adesina emphasised that Buhari would not hand “Nigeria over to those who will take her back or hand Nigeria over to looters once again.
“No, that will not happen,” he said.
Adesina also spoke on Buhari’s commitment to reforming Nigeria’s electoral law and whether he would act early enough to ensure the reforms.
“One thing that is clear is that the President will do whatever is needful before the next set of general elections. Early enough is relative but the president will do whatever is needful,” he said.
Bakare’s statement is coming about a week after he paid Mr Buhari a visit, and he has, at different fora, postured himself as a potential successor to President Buhari.
The Cleric who himself was the running mate of then-candidate Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential elections, last year said there was a divine arrangement for him to become Nigeria’s President when Buhari’s tenure ends in 2023.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has revealed one of the reasons he can’t make peace with Governor Similayi Fubara of Rivers State.
Wike accused Fubara of removing a chief in his family and went ahead to make another person a chief.
The FCT Minister stated this on Wednesday while fielding questions from journalists at a media parley in Abuja.
According to reports, the statement comes amid the ongoing political crisis in the State, with Wike and Governor Similayi Fubara at the center of the feud.
“Sometimes when you people talk about this peace, you don’t take everything. You don’t just sit outside to talk.
“Look at me, a former governor, Minister of of the FCT, Governor (Fubara) had the temerity, the audacity, because he has money from federation account, because he has more Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), will enter my own family to remove a chief and make another person a chief,” Wike said.
Akwa Ibom state Police Command has said that some locally made firearms have been recovered during stop and search operations along Ikot road in the state .
A statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer in the state DSP Timfon John and made available to Journalists in Uyo on Thursday stated that the recovered firearms was in a determined effort to rid the state of illegal firearms and criminal elements .
The statement reads in parts:” Operatives of the Command intercepted a Mercedes Benz C300 with customized plate number FORBES JR, leading to the recovery of a locally fabricated firearm and two live cartridges.
“The operation, which took place at the Control Post in Ikot Ekpene, was part of the Command’s intensified stop-and-search strategy aimed at curbing crime and enhancing public safety.”
He said the vehicle had three male occupants who were identified themselves as: Nsisong Paul Okon, 27, native of Itak Village in Ikono local government area ,Francis Forbes, 62 from Ikot Akpa Edok Ndiya Village and Prince Forbes, 27, of Ikot Akpa Edok Ndiya Village from Ikono local government area respectively.
However, John disclosed that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Baba M. Azare has ordered a full-scale investigation into the matter.
“The Akwa Ibom State Police Command reaffirms its zero tolerance for unlawful possession of firearms and remains resolute in ensuring the safety of lives and property across the state”.
President Bola Tinubu has instructed lawmakers of the Lagos State House of Assembly to allow the impeached and reinstated Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, to continue leading the house.
The President made this position known when he met with the lawmakers at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday.
As reported earlier, this is the first time President Tinubu is meeting the lawmakers since the crisis began in the house January 13, 2025.
One of the lawmakers told newsmen that ” Obasa is staying. We will obey the president. What we had was a family meeting. The President condenmed Obasa’s actions but blamed us for not carring him (Tinubu) along during the impeachement execrise”.
However, the lawmaker said President Tinubu warned Obasa to carry everyone along.
” He also warned him (Obasa) that if there were any future complaints from any quarters, he would be gone. “The President said he should let peace reign; and so based on that, we have accepted.”
On the pending matter in court, the source said: “The President has instructed him to withdraw it.”
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