President Muhammadu Buhari will not run for a third term in office as it is undemocratic, the Presidency has asserted.
The assertion was made on Tuesday against the backdrop of a campaign said to have been embarked upon by a support group calling on Buhari to do a third term in office.
The Presidency, in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said the president was not interested in such an arrangement.
He said there was no plan to change the constitution to that effect and the president considered a third term undemocratic.
The statement reads in full:
STATE HOUSE STATEMENT ON PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMITS
The Presidency wishes to correct internet-based gossip and un-informed media commentary regarding presidential term limits, given credence by so-called support groups, staging street demonstrations asking President Muhammadu Buhari to do a third term.
There are no circumstances – nor set of circumstances – under which President Buhari may seek to amend the Constitution regarding the two-term term limit on holding office as President.
President Buhari intends to serve his full second elected term in office, ending 2023 – and then there shall be a general election in which he will not be a candidate.
There is not even the faintest possibility that this will change.
It is important to note that there was a past attempt to change the Constitution to allow for the-then incumbent president to stand for a third term. That attempt was wrong, unconstitutional – and rightly rebuffed. No such attempt will happen under this President.
President Buhari is a democrat. He respects the Constitution. Any activity aimed at altering the two-term limit will not succeed and shall never have his time nor support.
Garba Shehu
