Babangida Stands By His Earlier Statement That Buhari Must Go In 2019 – Spokesman

.The spokesman of former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, Kassim Afegbua, on Sunday said the former ruler stands by his earlier statement that President Muhammadu Buhari should step aside in 2019.

Afegbua, who spoke on a Channels Television programme on Sunday evening, said some of Babangida’s friend sympathetic to Buhari forced him to issue the rebuttal.

He, however said Babangida has called him after to say he stands by the statement.

In the first statement by Afegbua, Babangida called for Buhari’s exit after his tenure in 2019.

He said a younger blood should take over.

But in the second statement, he called for the reversal to a two-party structure, which he entrenched during his regime, saying if he needed to speak with Buhari he knows the right channel and not through a statement.

Afegbua told Channels TV a few hours later: “I have been doing this job for about 14 years now.

“And I have never issued a statement on behalf of the former Head of State and he gave a rebuttal.

“I got authorisation and commitment from him before I issued the statement.

“It has been in process.

“He has called me to say that the statement still stands.“Of course, you know IBB is for everyone.

“People want to love him more than he loves himself.

People want to appreciate him more than he appreciates himself.

“People want to play the role of IBB.

“So when the statement was released, some of his friends saw it and they felt we were trying to put the former president on a collision course with the president.

“So, they went and did a statement to deny that.

“But I have since spoken to him; he called me and said, that statement stands.

“The kernel of that statement should inform public discourse and not necessarily people personalising it as if it were to be against the sitting president.

“So, the statement stands and I have since communicated to all the media houses that they should respect that statement as coming from IBB. It did not emanate from my head.

“We sat down, we discussed and articulated them.

“General Babangida wants a new side of leadership, from the younger generation of Nigerians who in his own views have the resourcefulness, the energy and capacity to manage governmental affairs.

“He is not personalizing his statement against the incumbent president.

“But he is saying, as a stakeholder and a concerned Nigerian, that he shares in the aspirations of the people.”