Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, says it is too early for President Muhammadu Buhari to support any aspirant for the presidency in the 2023 general election.
Adesina stated this on Friday during an interview with Channels Television.
The presidential spokesman was responding to reports on if Buhari’s recent visit to Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), featured talks on the 2023 elections.
The president had visited Tinubu in London on Thursday.
Adesina, who explained that the meeting between Buhari and the APC chieftain on Thursday was a “goodwill visit”, said it will be unlike Buhari to jump the gun on supporting presidential aspirants for the 2023 election.
“That meeting actually happened, but it is all about goodwill and best wishes. We know that asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had been in London about the same time the president was there,” he said.
“Like you said, we don’t believe what we read in social media but we have read a lot about asiwaju Tinubu’s health, so the president’s visit was a goodwill visit.
“The president still has two years less three months in his tenure of office. So, for him to start supporting somebody now will just be like jumping the gun and you know that President Buhari will never do that.
“Before the 2019 election, people began to campaign for him before INEC blew the whistle for campaign to start. He was the one who came out to say ‘no, don’t do it; don’t jump the gun’.
“The president himself will dare not jump the gun in terms of supporting one candidate or the other. Also, recall that he had said anybody that wants to be president after him should go out and work. That means the president may not be supporting anybody until maybe perhaps a candidate of the party emerges. Knowing President Buhari, he will never jump the gun.”
