The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, John Oyegun, has declared that the ruling party is not aware that President Muhammadu Buhari was preparing to seek a second term in office in 2019.
Oyegun’s position was also confirmed by some State Chairmen of the party, who insisted that they have no knowledge officially that the President was seeking a re-election.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, also confirmed that the party has not received any communication from the President.
Abdullahi had stated that the President had not sent an official letter to the party about his re-election, or his plan to contest the 2019 Presidential election.
Asked to clarify that the President has not notified the party on his re-election ambition, Oyegun said: “Yes, that is true.”
The APC National Chairman further said that whether by declaration or writing officially to the party, the President must inform the party of his intention to seek re-election.
When asked if the President must inform the party that he is seeking re-election, Oyegun said: “Either he informs the party officially, or he makes a declaration or whichever, he will certainly take a decision.”
Notwithstanding, Oyegun noted that the party would deliver whoever its Presidential candidate is in 2019, in the general elections.
He said it was not in his place to talk about APC delivering President Buhari in 2019. According to him, the party would deliver whoever emerges as its Presidential candidate.
Asked on what premise the ruling party would want to come back to power in 2019, the APC National Chairman said: “I can say to you with every sense of responsibility that the polity is settling down. I can say to you emphatically that the economy is recovering strongly. We are out of recession clearly and the economy is beginning to grow. I can say to you emphatically that in the critical areas that promote development as distinct from growth, the policy of the party and the implementation are firmly grounded.
“Whether you are talking of power, without which no nation can develop, it has stabilized reasonably. We still have a long way to go. I am not saying the problem has been solved. The commitment alone on the Mambilla Power Station is a major step forward; the bringing back upstream of projects that have been abandoned has contributed to rising generation capacity to what it is today. The strengthening of the transmission facilities is on-going. That is the backbone that delivers any power that you can generate to the distribution centres.
“What is important and what this Buhari administration has achieved is that it has stabilized the situation; it has started the process of substantial growth in power generation. It has substantially firmed up the capacity to transmit and a lot of work is going on in the distribution network.
“A nation without a functional rail system is only making pretences at development. It is the rail transportation that is the backbone of meaningful industrialisation. Here again, the Buhari administration has taken giant steps, not in words, but in practical terms, such that construction is already in progress in different areas of the country.
“Also, a nation that cannot feed itself cannot make any pretences of being a serious nation. We are now firmly in the process of being able to feed ourselves in the critical grains and critical crops that form the bedrock of our people’s diet.
“So, the picture I am trying to paint is that the new foundation for the growth of this nation is in place and it is being improved on a daily basis. The greatness and future of this nation is going to be built on agriculture; it is going to be built on our transportation; it is going to be built on our ability to deliver power. In fact, once we can solve substantially, the problem of power, the crisis of employment will begin to disappear.”
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