Presidential aide, Femi Adesina has said that his principal will not support aspirants ahead of the 2023 election until a candidate of his party, All Progressives Congress emerges.
Adesina who was responding to reports on if Buhari’s recent visit to Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the APC had a link to the 2023 election in an interview on Channels Television, noted that Buhari still has almost two years more in office and starting to support someone now will just be like jumping the gun.
He also recounted how the President stopped people from campaigning for him before the 2019 election began. The presidential aide reiterated that Buhari’s visit to Tinubu was “all about goodwill and best wishes”.
Adesina said “That meeting actually happened, but it is all about goodwill and best wishes. We know that asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had been in London about the same time the president was there. As you said, we don’t believe what we read in social media but we have read a lot about asiwaju Tinubu’s health, so the president’s visit was a goodwill visit. The president still has two years less three months in his tenure of office. So, for him to start supporting somebody now will just be like jumping the gun and you know that President Buhari will never do that. Before the 2019 election, people began to campaign for him before INEC blew the whistle for a campaign to start. He was the one who came out to say ‘no, don’t do it; don’t jump the gun’. The president himself will dare not jump the gun in terms of supporting one candidate or the other. Also, recall that he had said anybody that wants to be president after him should go out and work. That means the president may not be supporting anybody until maybe perhaps a candidate of the party emerges. Knowing President Buhari, he will never jump the gun”