By James Orji
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that he will not embark on a futile exercise of a Third Term in office, also known as tenure elongation.
In spite of this legal provision, there are suggestions in some quarters that the army General-turned-politician is nursing a third term.
In 2019, Charles Enya, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Ebonyi state, filed a suit, seeking the amendment of the constitution to allow Buhari get another term in office.
But the president has warned those that may want to embark on such exercise to desist as he’s not poised to remain in office beyond 2023.
Buhari spoke at a meeting in Makkah with a select group of Nigerians resident in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he just ended a visit.
According to him, “I swore by the Holy Qur’an that I will serve in accordance with the constitution and leave when my time is up. No “Tazarce’’ (tenure extension). I don’t want anybody to start talking about and campaigning for unconstitutional extension. I will not accept that.”
Meanwhile, President Buhari has thrown his weight behind the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to conduct election electronically, noting that the introduction of the card reader and electronic register was a saving grace for him, after he unsuccessfully took a shot at the presidency, three times before he eventually won in 2015.
“After the third so-called defeat, I said, ‘God Dey’. My opponents laughed at me but God answered my prayers by bringing in technology. At that point, nobody can steal their votes or buy them,” he said..
President Buhari, who ended his visit to the Kingdom with the Friday Prayers at the Grand Mosque in Makkah said he will continue to abide by the constitution in all its ramifications and he will at all times supervise and deal with his ministers on same basis, saying that “eighteen months or so of my time left, whatever I can do to improve the life of Nigerians, I will do it for the country.”
