President Muhammadu Buhari has assured doubting Nigerians that a third term in office or a constitutional amendment that will yield one, is not how he wants to be remembered.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term bid collapsed on the floor of the senate on May 16, 2006 after lawmakers threw out the constitutional amendment bill.
Legislators were also financially induced to amend the constitution for Obasanjo at the time, according to sundry reports.
Wads of cash meant to bribe legislators, reportedly made their way to the national assembly in bullion vans at the time.
There have been speculations in the social media that Buhari, whose constitutionally permissible second term in office elapses on May 29, 2023, is set to borrow from the Obasanjo playbook, but the president says he will never go down that route of infamy.
“The Presidency wishes to correct internet-based gossip and un-informed media commentary regarding presidential term limits, given credence by so-called support groups, staging street demonstrations asking President Muhammadu Buhari to do a third term,” Buhari said in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on the nation’s Independence Day.
“There are no circumstances – nor set of circumstances – under which President Buhari may seek to amend the constitution regarding the two-term term limit on holding office as president.
“President Buhari intends to serve his full second elected term in office, ending 2023 – and then there shall be a general election in which he will not be a candidate.
It is important to note that there was a past attempt to change the constitution to allow for the-then incumbent president to stand for a third term. That attempt was wrong, unconstitutional – and rightly rebuffed. No such attempt will happen under this president.
“President Buhari is a democrat. He respects the constitution. Any activity aimed at altering the two-term limit will not succeed and shall never have his time nor support,” the statement concluded.