By Chris Udochukwu
Abuja (Precise Post) – Presidency on Saturday disassociated itself from the comment credited to President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, Malam Mamman Daura on the criteria for who succeeds Buhari, insisting that those views expressed were personal to him and did not, in any way, reflect that of either the President or his administration.
Precise Post recalls that Mamman Daura, assumed to be the reputed head of the kitchen cabinet of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, early this week, spoke on the zoning and rotation of the nation’s presidency, arguing that competence, not geography should determine the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
According to him, “This turn-by-turn, it was done once, it was done twice, and it was done thrice… It is better for this country to be one…it should be for the most competent and not for someone who comes from somewhere,” he told the BBC Hausa Service in an interview.
Dismissing the clamour for power shift, he said it was time for the country to unite and go for the most competent person to lead the nation.
While reacting to this, the Presidency said “Malam Mamman qualifies as an elder statesman with a national duty to hold perspectives and disseminate them as guaranteed under our constitution and laws of the land. He does not need the permission or clearance of anyone to exercise this right.
The Presidency further alleged that the content of the interview was mixed up and new meanings were introduced and/or not properly articulated.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu who took to his twitter handle @GarShehu to react tweeted thus:
“We have received numerous requests for comments on the interview granted by Malam Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew to the BBC Hausa Service.
“It is important that we state from the onset that as mentioned by the interviewee, the views expressed were personal to him and did not, in any way, reflect that of either the President or his administration.
“At age 80, and having served as editor and managing director of one of this country’s most influential newspapers, the New Nigerian, certainly, Malam Mamman qualifies as an elder statesman with a national duty to hold perspectives and disseminate them as guaranteed under our constitution and laws of the land. He does not need the permission or clearance of anyone to exercise this right.
“In an attempt to circulate the content of the interview to a wider audience, the English translation clearly did no justice to the interview, which was granted in Hausa, and as a result, the context was mixed up and new meanings were introduced and/or not properly articulated.
“The issues discussed during the interview, centred around themes on how the country could birth an appropriate process of political dialogue, leading to an evaluation, assessment and a democratic outcome that would serve the best interest of the average Nigerian irrespective of where they come from.
“These issues remain at the heart of our evolving and young democracy, and as a veteran journalist, scholar and statesman, Malam Mamman has seen enough to add his voice to those of many other participants.
