SENIOR Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu says Muhammadu Buhari was pressured by Nigerians to contest for presidency.
He said this during an interview with Channels Television on Friday.
Shehu was reacting to earlier comments by the president, saying he had given his best to the country and that age was beginning to catch up with him.
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“The president can be very casual sometimes in speaking and jovial and jocularly. I think this is what people fail to understand of him. They need to understand how he was persuaded and pressured to run in the first instance.
“He had served as governor, minister and military head of state and that’s the highest it could get. He had retired home and Nigerians came and said ‘you are the right person for this moment, we need you.’ It took some persuasion,” he said.
Agreeing with Buhari’s comments, Shehu also said the president had indeed given his best as the rest would be left for his successor.
“It is right to say he has given his best and when the time is up, some other person will take over,” Shehu said.
In an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Buhari said he was anticipating the end of his tenure.
The president had said the work had become quite strenuous but admitted that he asked for it.
“The age is telling on me, working now for six, seven to eight hours per day in the office is no joke — there are questions of executive council, memos from as many states as possible to be considered virtually every week. Really, it’s a lot of hard work, but as I’ve said, I asked for it and I cannot complain,” Buhari said.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.