Ex-lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye has raised the alarm over President Muhammadu Buhari’s instructions to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and governors that they should do everything right to choose his successor.
Melaye said Buhari’s statement in that regard was dictatorial and not democratic. He further tagged the statement as sacrilegious and unconstitutional.
Buhari had told the progressives governors during a meeting in Abuja to choose his successor. He said: “In keeping with the established internal policies of the Party and as we approach the Convention in a few days, therefore, I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the Governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.”
But Melaye said the president deliberately used the word successor and not flagbearer or candidate of the APC, and that the statement has a negative import, and that the effect is that the president wants to impose a president on Nigerians.
Melaye said: “ We are in a democracy. We will not allow imposition. We will not allow the president to handle this country as if we are under a monarchical government. It’s sacrilegious, it’s abominable and it’s undemocratic for the president to talk about a successor in an election that has not been conducted yet.
“I’m calling on Nigerians to be at alert in this battle to salvage this country from these financial scavengers. It’s a battle of no retreat no surrender. I want to assure Mr President that we are ready more than before to defend this democracy with our blood. We will not allow imposition, we will not allow rigging; we will not allow any tendency that is anti-democratic,” Malaye said.