How Buhari rejected motion to endorse him for second term at APC NEC – Presidency

Femi Adesina, media adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed that his principal personally rejected the motion to endorse him for 2019 during the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This is contained in an article he release on Friday titled, ‘PMB: Just like the mills of the gods’.

Adesina lamented how the media made it look as though Buhari was embarrassed at the meeting.

He insisted that it was Buhari himself who signalled to those in attendance that the meeting should not talk about his 2019 ambition.

Adesina wrote: “I was there (APC NEC meeting). The atmosphere was friendly, almost convivial. At a point, someone moved a motion of confidence in the Buhari administration.

“The seconder, a former state governor, added to the motion, seeking an endorsement of the President as candidate for second term in 2019. As he raised the motion, I saw the President gesturing, with his two palms downwards.

“The gesture meant, please, cool down, not now. This is premature. And the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, weighed in, accepting the motion of confidence, and deferring the one on automatic candidacy. Everyone was satisfied.

“You can imagine my consternation the next day, when I saw the newspaper headlines. It was as if some of them were reporting a meeting held in outer space.

“They said a bid by governors to get automatic ticket for the President had failed. One newspaper exulted: “Govs’ bid to get automatic 2019 ticket for Buhari fails.’ Pure fiction. Concocted story. It never happened the way the newspaper had conjured.

“And it was the President himself who had dissuaded those who made the move, by his gesture. Hate news seems to have crept into the polity, and otherwise credible newspapers have eaten the forbidden apple.

“Under President Buhari, for Nigeria, the storm will pass (and is, indeed, passing), and the spring will come. The mills of the gods grind slowly, but exceedingly finely. I believe. What about you?”