President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said he does not care about who succeeds him, stressing that 2023 is not his problem.
The president stated this during an exclusive interview with Channels TV.
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His assertion is in contrast to former President Olusegun Obasanjo who worked to ensure that late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua succeeded him in 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
President Buhari, who was asked to say something about the 2023 elections, said: “2023 is not my problem, I don’t care who succeeds me, let the person come, whoever the person is.
“All important things I make sure I put them on record. Nobody should ask me to come and give any evidence in court, otherwise, whoever it is will be in trouble.
“I don’t have a favourite for 2023 in my party, I wouldn’t because he will be eliminated before I mention, it is better I keep it a secret.”
On what legacy he would like to leave behind, the President said: “My legacy is that I will try to make sure we conducted ourselves with integrity, which means we stop all the stealing as much as the system can allow. We’ll stop misappropriation. And for Nigerians, that is very important.”
On the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) currently under trial and detention, Nnamdi Kanu, Buhari said he could not release him as he would not interfere in the judicial process.
He, however, said the government was open to a political solution if he turned a new leaf.
He said: “There is one institution I wouldn’t try to intervene in, that is the judiciary. Kanu’s case is with the judiciary. But what I wonder is that when Kanu was safely in Europe, abusing this administration and mentioning too many things, I never thought really, he wants to come and defend himself on the accusations he has been making.
“So, we are giving him an opportunity to defend himself in our system and not to be abusing us from Europe. He was acting as if he was not a Nigerian.
“Let him come here and criticise us, Nigerians know I don’t interfere with the judiciary, let him be listened to. For those who are saying he should be released, no, we cannot release him.”
On whether there could be a political solution, the President said: “There is a possibility of a political solution if they behave themselves, we will let them go. But you can’t go to a foreign country and keep on making condescending and incorrect security and economic problems against your country and thinking you will not be held accountable for what you are doing, let him account for what he has been doing.”
Asked whether he expressed any fear about the unity of Nigeria, Buhari said: “I don’t fear for the oneness and unity of this country because from 15 January 1966, I have been in all the troubles of this country including detention for more than three years.
“I think Nigerians, we make noise to get better deals but we know that we are better together than separate. I believe in that.”
On restructuring, Buhari asked the promoters to properly define the concept.
“Those who are calling for restructuring, I want them to define what they mean in their own concept of restructuring, do they want more states? If they want states, they should look at the map of Nigeria, at what expense?
“I have a big problem with the people of the South East, they said they wanted an additional state, I said they should go and look at the map to see how much land we contribute to other states.”
President Buhari insisted that the way to solve farmers/herders clashes was to revive the cattle routes and grazing reserves in the country.
The president stressed the need to go back to the system that recognised cattle routes and grazing areas to solve the farmers-herders conflicts.
He added that grazing routes and water ponds should be secured, saying “One thing about cattle is that after eating grass, they will look for water to drink”.
On climate change, he said Nigeria was susceptible because of the population and size of the country.
He also said that since bandits terrorising the North West zone and some parts of North Central in the country have been designated as terrorists, he had ordered the security agents to go after them in full force.
“In the North West, the same people, the same culture, killing each other, banning grazing. So, I think the only language they understand, we discussed it thoroughly with the law enforcement agencies, with the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, is to go after the terrorists.
‘’We named them terrorists and we are going to deal with them. I believe if you go to those constituencies in the North West and the North Central within the last four weeks, there are improvements in the security,” he said.
He also stated that he would sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill if the National Assembly added all options to produce candidates, including direct, indirect and consensus.
“Personally, I don’t support direct primary. I want people to have choices. Let them have the three options,” he said.
On the appointment of Dr Doyin Salami as the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, he said the appointee would combine the task with the chairmanship of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
He expressed confidence in the ability of Dr Salami whom he described as a “fantastic and committed” personality to provide direction in the current plan to invest massively in agriculture because of the realisation that only 2.5 per cent of arable land is being cultivated.
Buhari, who said he was “adequately aware” of the sufferings and pains of ordinary Nigerians, further underscored the need to embrace agriculture to change the tide.
When asked whether he was satisfied with the current state of electricity in Nigeria, the president said he was not “happy”.
The president, however, said his administration was still working to achieve its set goals on rail, road and power.
“We have to get the infrastructure right. When the infrastructure is not there, there will be no power,” he said.
“The problem of electricity is that TCN is 100 per cent government but what we inherited is what is called DISCOs, they divided the country almost along geo-political zones, what was the basis?
“I can’t find out, the people that owned them, who are they? They are not electrical engineers. They don’t have money. It is a political favour and to remove a system and bring it back is not a joke.”
President Buhari, while defending loans obtained from China, wondered if it was right to turn down an important project like Lagos-Ibadan rail when the administration was working to fix critical infrastructure such as rail, roads and power.
In his words for the youth, the President urged them to go to school, work hard, and think less of getting jobs from the government, saying an educated person is better than an uneducated one.
Asked about what to say about the PDP, the President described the leading opposition party as a “failure”.
On state police, Buhari said he believes that it is not an option for the nation, alluding to the propensity for governors to abuse their powers.
“State police is not an option…Find out the relationship between local government and the governors. Is the third tier of government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally?
“Are they getting it? Let the people in local government tell you the truth, the fight between local governments and the governors.”
PDP kicks as president rules out state police
Reacting to the interview, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu accused Buhari of being comfortable with the state of insecurity in the country, insisting that the president’s statement that “State police is not an option”, suggested that the situation may not be about to change.
Ayu also criticised the president for pushing the blame for the incessant killing of farmers by terrorists on locals along grazing routes.
The PDP chairman in a statement he personally signed said that “It appears the continued killings in some localities of Nigeria, particularly in the North and more specifically in President Buhari’s home state of Katsina, may not matter to him with his statement that state police is not an option.
“Watching President Muhammadu Buhari this evening on Channels TV during an interview session was a gratuitous waste of time because there was nothing new coming from the president.
“As has been said by many before now, to expect anything new from our president would be a misplaced and unfortunate expectation.
“From the economy to insecurity, killing of innocent farmers by terrorists (which some erroneously term farmer/herder clashes) and other sundry issues, President Buhari honoured his calling as a president who has nothing new to offer,” he said.
He’s going without political legacy – Rafsanjani
Also dissecting the president’s interview, the Chairman Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said Buhari has just confirmed what many Nigerians were saying that his interest was just to become the president and nothing more.
“And this is why governance was not being taken seriously because he has achieved what he wanted to achieve. Now that he has become the president, he is not worried about keeping any legacy.
“There is no political legacy that he is leaving. This is why he can make that kind of statement. Any serious politician would want a worthy successor and leave a political system, justice and fairness that would continue to be a legacy.
As he (Buhari) does not care about what happened in 2023, one can see that he would go with his history, without leaving any legacy behind and this is the reality,” Rafsanjani said.
He must be concerned about who succeeds him – Don
A political scientist, Dr Gbade Ojo said the president should be concerned about the 2023 election and the person who succeeds considering that it is a transitional election.
In a chat with Daily Trust, the Associate Professor of Political Science, said, “How could a president fear not about his successor and the stability of the country? He is to be concerned about who succeeds him and the fate of the party.
“How could you care less about your successor? 2023 should be very critical and important to him, critical in the sense that it will define the stability of the country and the continuity of the country.
“So if the man is not concerned about 2023, then the country is in for a problem because it is another transition from him to another president whether from his party or another party.
“So 2023 is a defining factor in the stability of this country more so in the face of ethnic agitation here and there and calls for restructuring,” he said.
