Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is not willing to reveal the identity of his anointed candidate in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election in order to protect the individual from being “eliminated”.
Responding to a question about his preferred candidate in the race for his successor, during an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, Buhari said “It is (a) secret.”
“No, I wouldn’t say because he may be eliminated if I mention. I better keep it,” the President stated with a smile.
When asked if he was interested in who eventually succeeds him, he responded, “No. Let him come, whoever it is.
“All important things, I’ll make sure that they are on record. Nobody should ask me to come and give any evidence in any court, otherwise whoever it is, he will be in trouble because all important things are on record.
“I think my legacy is that I try to make sure that we conduct ourselves with integrity. That means we stopped all the stealing as much as the system can allow; we stopped misappropriation and for Nigerians that is very important.”
President Buhari stated his readiness to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, if the National Assembly would include the options of consensus candidate and indirect primary to the mode of selecting a candidate for an election, as against the initial direct mode as the only option to conduct primaries by political parties.
“There should be options, you can’t dictate to people and say you are doing democracy. Give them other options so they can make a choice,” he said.
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