For the second time in four months, President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that he has no intension of staying in office beyond May 29 this year.
Buhari also drove this home by saying he will be far from Abuja, the nation’s seat of power after leaving office.
The president had last October dismissed suggestion that he’s planning to stay put in office, amidst fear among some Nigerians that undercurrent plot is underway by some vested inretests in his government to keep him power beyond the date stipulated by the law.
For instance, Prof. Pat Utomi, an economist and Labour Party chieftain had earlier this week accused the Department of State, DSS, of plot to perpetuate the incumbent in power, saying that the recent revelation by the secret police that some unnamed persons are trying to derailed the transition of power to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was red flag by the DSS to justify the plan to keep Buhari in Aso Rock, Nigeria’s Presidency.
Utomi spoke amidst calls for an Interim National Government, ING , by some politicians and opinion leaders in the country. Not a few Nigerians have dismissed such calls on the basis that it will derail the country’s nascent democracy.
Buhari who spoke on Wednesday during the visit by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, said he’s already looking forward to his retirement and has no plan to eturn to Abuja, the nation’s capital for a long time after May 29.
“I will be as far away from Abuja as possible,” Buhari was quoted in a statement signed by Femi Adesina, the president’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.
If Buhari’s transmits power to Tinubu seemlessly in two months time, it will be the third time for such to happen since the country returned to democratic rule since 1999.
