By Vera Chinonso Aliyu and Ada Obeleagu, YeyeNews.com, October 31, 2021
There is concern in the presidency over President Buhari’s persistent refusal to support any of the current known presidential contenders in APC to succeed him in 2023. A source at Aso Rock told YeyeNews.com reporter that the president is insisting he will only support a candidate from the southeast to succeed him.
“The president is bent on a candidate from the southeast but he doesn’t want any of them from his cabinet. He doesn’t think any of his ministers from the southeast are worthy to be his successor and he has one reason or the other – from personal to professional – to reject all his Southeast ministers as his successor. However, I know for sure he wants somebody from the region to succeed him”, the source stated.
A source who is an aide of the Chief of Staff told YeyeNews.com that the president has informed his Chief of Staff about the person he intends to support. “President Buhari told the CoS that he can only support Dr. Chuba Okadigbo to be his successor and directed that the CoS should secretly work to convince Dr. Okadigbo to join the APC. The president seems not to be aware that Dr. Chuba Okadigbo had died long time ago. But the Chief of Staff could not tell him that Dr. Okadigbo has died because he doesn’t want the president to feel embarrassed”, the source opined.
“Right now the CoS is in a dilemma as to how best to remind the president that Dr. Chuba Okadigbo had died long time ago in 2003 after he was gassed during a political protest both of them participated in. But a media aide has advised the CoS to ask for the help of the president’s UK doctors to assist in making the president understand that Dr. Chuba Okadigbo is dead”.
When YeyeNews.com reached out to the main opposition party, PDP, at its Abuja secretariat, a spokeswoman told the reporter that they knew about the situation and the fact that Pres. Buhari ability to remember was diminishing. She described the entire situation as embarrassing. “This government is embarrassing everyone with their penchant to appoint dead people into position. Now the president has taken this to a step higher by nominating a dead person to succeed him in office in 2023.
