However, we welcome support for our candidates at all levels by other parties.
The Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari will only support candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress during the 2023 general elections.
Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
Shehu warned APC members who have defected from the party and are in court against official candidates of the party to stop linking their actions to Buhari, adding that the President remains a “disciplined soldier” of the ruling party.
The statement reads, “The Presidency wishes to put it on record, and at the same time, reassure faithful party members that President Muhammadu Buhari remains a “disciplined soldier” of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and will, in all the coming elections, support only those candidates fielded by the party and no other.
“This is a warning to decamped party members and some others who are still in court against official candidates of the APC that they are on their own and nobody outside the party tent should link what they are doing to President Buhari.
“The President wishes to be quoted as saying that he is the “occupant of the high office of the President by the Grace of God who used the instrumentality of the APC to bring him to power with a historic verdict in 2015.” In 2019, he was returned with a bigger majority. For the first time, a non-PDP government came to power with a huge majority after 16 years of the Fourth Republic. His constant refrain is: “I will not betray or undermine my party by supporting candidates other than those of the APC.”
“This statement is not against any particular candidate. However, our stand is clear that only those candidates fielded by the All Progressives Candidates, APC will enjoy the support of the President and they are the ones he will campaign for. However, we welcome support for our candidates at all levels by other parties.
“The President says he will continue to support the party at all levels to enforce discipline, synchronization and coordination.
“He also directs officials in and around the Presidential Villa and all those engaging in loose talk to resist making controversial statements that eventually end up hurting the party and the government, thereby providing a weapon for the opposition to use against the administration, the party or its candidates in the coming elections.”
However, Buhari has tacitly supported candidates fielded by other political parties against the APC in the past.
In 2019, he received the then Allied Peoples Movement (APM) governorship candidate in Ogun state, Adekunle Akinlade, in Aso Rock.
The primaries had produced the incumbent governor of the state Dapo Abiodun as the APC governorship candidate.
During a campaign rally in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital in February 2019, ahead of the last general elections, President Buhari told APC members to vote for any governorship candidate of their choice in the forthcoming general elections.
He urged them to vote for him, the APC candidate in the presidential election.
This followed the political crisis in the state as the then governor, Ibikunle Amosun had backed Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the party’s choice, Dapo Abiodun.
Akinlade had failed to clinch the governorship ticket of the party in its primary election following which Amosun vowed to work against the APC for the governorship election.
Buhari, while addressing the crowd at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, said, “On Saturday, February 16, you are to vote for Presidential candidate of the APC. But I want to urge you to choose whoever you like across the parties as governor of Ogun State. There is no problem about it. I have no problem about it. The rest people of Ogun State will decide.”
Some weeks earlier in Owerri, the Imo State capital, Buhari also asked APC members to vote for the candidate of their choice in the governorship election as the then governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha wanted his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who was running on the platform of the Action Alliance (AA) to succeed him.
Nwosu had also failed to clinch the APC governorship ticket in the party’s primaries.