I read one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers, Adebayo Shittu, say that his boss is poised to seek re-election in 2019.  Before his poorly-packaged, unsolicited public service announcement, there were media reports that former Rivers State governor and current Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, had been quietly reappointed as the Director-General of Buhari’s presidential (re-election) campaign organisation.

None of these came to me as a surprise.  These and other antics have been characteristic of presidential power game in Nigeria.  So much drama would always be orchestrated around the simple act by the incumbent President of declaring interest to re-contest a position he occupies.  The President, who has the right of first refusal to the presidential ticket of his ruling party, would have to be pampered, persuaded and begged to heed the call of his minions.
You wonder why it takes the President the needless observance of these hackneyed ceremonies to tell his countrymen and women that he would like to seek re-election and, therefore, would count on their maximum support.

The Yoruba have a proverb: “Ti iwo ba se rere, ara ki o ya o bi?” meaning, “If you are doing or have done the right thing, will you not be eager to stand up to be counted?” It is like a man who is free of guilty conscience.  A conscience that is gripped by guilt has a way of acting as a force of restraint on godly individuals.

Whereas, an incumbent president who has done well in office would have appealed to the sensibilities of a vast majority of the people and would thus not need the theatrics of speaking through some minions to test the waters of acceptance as President Buhari is doing at the moment.

For a President whose performance in office has been overwhelming and inspiring, Nigerians would have risen in unison to place a demand on him to seek re-election.  But it does appear to me that Buhari, being an honest man, knows that he probably has under-performed by his own estimation and he is at great pains to submit himself, willy-nilly, to a confidence vote, which the 2019 presidential election typifies.




http://punchng.com/no-more-fire-in-president-buharis-belly/