Lawan: Pressure to Run for President Speculative, Awaiting God’s Direction

Deji Elumoye
 

President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, has described as mere speculation, insinuations that pressure was being mounted on him to contest the 2023 presidential election under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Rather, he said he would wait on God for direction on what his next political move should be.

Lawan, who spoke with newsmen yesterday on the sidelines of the Sallah homage paid to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, by Abuja residents, to mark the Eid-el-Fitr, stressed that, “If we stabilise our economy, we stabilise our country, then, people can contest, but for now, everything is speculative and I believe that God, in His infinite mercy, will show us the way.”

On the question of his speculated presidential ambition, the nation’s number three citizen said, “I thought you were going to ask me about what we want to do in 2022. We passed the budget for 2022, a budget for consolidation of what we have been able to achieve in 2020, when we had an implementation of 100%.

“2022 has just finished, another 100% implementation of budget and we’re looking forward to ensure that the 2022 budget is also implemented by 100%.”

He, therefore, cautioned politicians against overheating the polity ahead of the 2023 general election, noting that there must be a peaceful and stable country first before any politician could be assured of taking over government through an election.

According to him, the government has been trying to put the country in shape through the full implementation of the budget, even as he observed that when the economy and country were stabilised, people would have a place to contest elections.

Calling on citizens to shun partisianship and work towards making the country better organised, he noted that the country would have been in a better condition by now but for the two recessions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today, we are happy to say that we’re still making progress, but would have done far better if we hadn’t had the COVID interruption. So, I believe that as a nation, we are moving in the right direction and President Muhammadu Buhari is giving us the leadership that we need and all that we need to do is to continue to support our leaders, continue to support our government and it’s in the best interest of everyone.

“Let no politics, let no partisanship, let no sentiments derail any of our programmes and projects, because you need to have a Nigeria first if you are running to take over government at whatever level. You need to have a country, you need to have a stable country, you need to have a peaceful country in first place and if you do that, you can contest, for example. But as individuals, we have a date with a history.

“How much do we give to our nation? How much do we sacrifice for the sake of others in our communities and in our country? That determines a lot how far we can go, because if we decide to be selfish, then, I’m sorry, we may not make that kind of progress that we believe can take us to the Eldorado,” Lawan further said.