Before Monday, April 9, 2018, governors under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) had urged President Muhammadu Buhari to seek re-election in 2019. They also threatened to sue him if he shunned their advice.
Despite their threats and pressure from party members, the President asked for more time to consult widely before taking a decision on their request.
Abdullahi Ganduje, Governor of Kano State, had threatened that his government was ready to take legal action if Buhari refused to seek re-election.
“APC governors want Mr. President to continue,” Ganduje said while addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday.
“I am happy that it is not the President that said he wants to continue, it is the people that are saying continue, but Mr. President has not made up his mind yet.
“Kano State Government will take him to court any time he decides not to contest. So we are waiting for him.
“In this country, we saw presidents who spent billions of naira for third term. So what is the ruse about a constitutional second term?”
Early in January, Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State and Chairman of APC Governors Forum, had said the governors “unanimously agreed” that the President deserves a second term in office and have therefore asked him to declare to run in the next election.”
He stated that the President had justified his first term mandate and should have his mandate renewed.
But Okorocha did not stop there . On February 23, he said Buhari would soon address the nation on whether he would seek re-election in 2019 and “that if he continues Nigeria will be better for it”.
He had had a closed-door meeting between the President and the APC governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
In November 2017, Okorocha told leaders of Democratic Youths Congress for Buhari 2019, who paid him a courtesy visit, that “now God has chosen him (Buhari) to be the President of Nigeria and some of us are witnesses that Buhari was and is still the best for Nigeria at this material time”.
“President Buhari is the best for the country at the moment and that there could not have been a better option now,” he said.
‘’I am a believer of Buhari and I made it clear years ago that if President Buhari is running for President, I will not run.”
Also in November 2017, Dave Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, urged the President to seek re-election in 2019.
“Since Mr President is doing his first term and I am doing my first term, it’s my wish to re-contest. So, I will as well wish Mr. President the same – to re-contest,” said Umahi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he spoke to State House Correspondents after meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa.
With the President formally declaring his intention to run, on Monday, Okorocha no longer needs to worry about whether or not his wish would be granted. More importantly, the Kano State government no longer needs to waste tax payers’ funds on suing the President.