Though he is yet to officially declare, there is no doubt that President Muhammadu Buhari will seek Nigerians mandate again in the forthcoming presidential election.

Though Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media recently said he is yet to decide on whether to contest or not, many Nigerians have punctured his claims given recent developments in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and actions taken by loyalists of the presidents such as the re-appointment of Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transport as the Director- General of the President’s campaign organisation which the president is privy to, inauguration of the South- West zonal office of the Buhari/Osinbajo campaign office led by Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications and the endorsement of the president as the sole candidate of the ruling party by Progressives Governors Forum.

However, the president who enjoyed massive support from Nigerians three years ago and rode to power on the goodwill of the populace who were fed up with the years of misgovernance by the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now faces the challenges of declining political influence and competitive advantages of opponents in his aspirations to lead Nigeria for another term.

First to fire the salvo against the president’s plan to seek reelection was Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, fiery preacher and Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministries, Enugu (AMEN). At the 2017 cross-over night of his ministry at its Adoration Ground, Emene, Enugu, he advised President Buhari not to run for a second term and also called on Northerners to seek suitable replacement for him in 2019.

Giving reasons for his warning, Mbaka said Nigerians have suffered untold hardship under Buhari’s government and also blamed the president for the numerous problems facing him and the country.

He said: “As I was waiting on the Lord, I’m asked to advise you, don’t come out for second tenure; after this, retire peacefully. Mr. President you are the cause of your own problem. God gave you an adviser, a wonderful mentor, a visionist, a matriarch, in the person of your wife, Aisha, but you don’t want to listen to her. That woman is heartbroken because she understood that you are not yourself. Come back to yourself or you will cry by the time you will be sent out of office. So, those who are encouraging you to come out and run again, they want to disgrace you shamefully and publicly”, Mbaka said.

It will be recalled that the cleric had predicted Buhari’s victory over former president, Goodluck Jonathan in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election. Shortly after his inauguration, the president invited Mbaka to Aso Villa where he expressed gratitude for the spiritual support offered by the cleric during the polls.

However, responding to the cleric’s warning, the party through its spokesperson, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said it is not bound by the cleric’s declaration as a political party is not run by prophecy.

“We cannot run a political party by prophecy. Prophecy is a matter of personal conviction or personal belief. The party cannot act based on any kinds of prophecies because we are not operating on that. We only act based on what is politically correct. People are free to believe such prophecies but our party will not act or take critical decisions based on prophecies”, he said.

Few days after Mbaka’s warning, an opinion poll conducted by a national newspaper revealed that many Nigerians vowed not to vote for President Buhari during the 2019 presidential election. It gauged the opinions of Nigerians using three options for participants.

Those who want to vote again for the President in 2019 answered by clicking ‘YES’ while those with a contrary opinion clicked the ‘NO’ button. The last option was for those who were indifferent to Buhari’s choice.

Out of the 9,524 participants who took part in the poll, 58 per cent (5,519 respondents) said they would not vote for Buhari in 2019. Up to 3,588 people, amounting to 38 per cent, said ‘YES’ to the poll while four per cent (417 votes) were indifferent to Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid. The final analysis of the poll confirmed that many Nigerians are not happy with the performance of the President and do not want him to continue running the affairs of the nation for another four years.

While the presidency is still battling to wriggle out of that shocker, former president, Olusegun Obasanjo whose opinion on crucial national issues is highly sought after by many Nigerians on Monday asked President Buhari not to seek re-election, citing his “poor performance” in office.

Obasanjo, in a lengthy statement he issued yesterday spoke of poverty and insecurity in Nigeria as well as, Buhari’s poor economic management, nepotism and gross dereliction of duty.

He said he would be in the vanguard of a movement to oust Buhari from power if the president would run in the election again.

“The situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get Jonathan out is playing itself out again,” Obasanjo said, adding that he voted for Buhari because at that time it was a matter of “any option but Jonathan.”

“I will consider no sacrifice too great to make for the good of Nigeria at any time,” he said.

Though Obasanjo commended President Buhari over his achievements in fighting corruption and insurgency, the former president added that he is sacrificing national interest on the altar of nepotic interest.

He added: “But there are three other areas where President Buhari has come out more glaringly than most of us thought we knew about him. One is nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court.

´This has grave consequences on performance of his government to the detriment of the nation. It would appear that national interest was being sacrificed on the altar of nepotic interest.

“The second is his poor understanding of the dynamics of internal politics. This has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced. It also has effect on general national security. The third is passing the buck.

“If things were good, President Buhari would not need to come in. He was voted to fix things that were bad and not engage in the blame game.

“Kinship and friendship that place responsibility for governance in the hands of the unelected can only be deleterious to good government and to the nation.”

Aside these, there are also insinuations that the First Lady, Aisha Buhari is also fed up with the president’s performance and has vowed not to support his reelection bid in 2019.

It will be recalled that the First Lady in an interview she granted BBC in October 2017 had warned that she may not back the president at the 2019 election unless he shakes up his government.

The First Lady who also said her husband had not told her whether he would contest the 2019 election said: “He is yet to tell me but I have decided, as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again.”

Will the president listen to all these voices of reason and forgo his reelection plans? Time will tell!

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