18th July, 2020
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Nigeria’s Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has opened up on his purported plan to vie for 2023 presidency.
There have been reports that Lawan was gearing up to run for the presidency after consultations with President Muhammadu Buhari.
But Lawan denounced such move on Saturday, saying it was to premature for anyone to be thinking of running for the presidency now.
However, Lawan did not say he has no intention to vie for the number one office, but said his preoccupation right now was to advance the interest of the 9th Assembly.
Lawan’s position was made known in a statement issued by Ola Awoniyi, Special Adviser (Media) to President of the Senate.
“The attention of the office of the President of the Senate has been drawn to a rather puerile media report that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, is making plans to run for president in 2023. The report was first published by the Daily Independent newspaper of Friday, 17th July, 2020 and reproduced later by the Sahara Reporters.
“It is easy to see that the report emanated from the sort of practice that drags the noble profession of journalism to the gutters as it only dresses up the lazy fantasy of its unimaginative authors as a fact,” the statement said.
It said the report apparently had its source in beer parlour gossips and should be treated with the contempt which it and those who concocted it deserved.
The statement said it was true that the Senate President was involved in the consultations that President Muhammadu Buhari held prior to the last emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC).
“But there was nothing extra-ordinary in his involvement in such consultations, given his status as holder of one of the highest political offices in Nigeria and on the platform of the APC. Such is required of any concerned member of the party. It is therefore sheer mischief for anyone to read ulterior motives to the Senate President joining hands with the President and other leaders in resolving misunderstanding in their own party.
“We will like to stress that the Senate President’s preoccupation is with advancing the agenda of the Ninth National Assembly to focus governance on the pursuit of the best interests of the Nigerian people and to support President Buhari in delivering his promises to Nigerians,” it stated.
It added that the Senate President did not suffer such needless distractions as imputed by the false report under reference, as he believed that “it is premature for anybody to be talking now about 2023 when all hands should be on deck against the myriad of challenges that faces our nation in this period.
“We advise the idle pseudo-journalists to look for other engagements and stop bastardising this noble profession.”