Presidency Reacts To Daura’s Comments On Buhari’s Successor In 2023

The presidency has said the comments by President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew Mamman Daura on the 2023 presidential election in the country was exclusive to him and did not reflect the view of Buhari’s administration.

In a statement by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu, he explained that Daura at his age and considering his experience in the media industry reserves the right to freedom of speech like every other citizen in the country.

He added that there are possibilities that since the interview was originally done in Hausa one of Nigeria’s major languages and later transcribed into English that some informations must have been distorted hence the context could easily have been misinterpreted. 

He said, “We have received numerous requests for comments on the interview granted by Malam Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew to the BBC Hausa Service.

“It is important that we state from the onset that as mentioned by the interviewee, the views expressed were personal to him and did not, in any way, reflect that of either the president or his administration.

“At age 80, and having served as editor and managing director of one of this country’s most influential newspapers, the New Nigerian, certainly, Malam Mamman qualifies as an elder statesman with a national duty to hold perspectives and disseminate them as guaranteed under our constitution and laws of the land. He does not need the permission or clearance of anyone to exercise this right.

“In an attempt to circulate the content of the interview to a wider audience, the English translation clearly did no justice to the interview, which was granted in Hausa, and as a result, the context was mixed up and new meanings were introduced and/or not properly articulated.

“The issues discussed during the interview, centred around themes on how the country could birth an appropriate process of political dialogue, leading to an evaluation, assessment and a democratic outcome that would serve the best interest of the average Nigerian  irrespective of where they come from.

“These issues remain at the heart of our evolving and young democracy, and as a veteran journalist, scholar, and statesman, Malam Mamman has seen enough to add his voice to those of many other participants.”

Earlier the 80 year old Daura had said Buhari’s  successor in 2023 should be chosen based on competence rather than simply which part of the country he hails from.

According to him, since Nigerians have tried the rotational presidency about thrice already, it would be better to go for the most qualified candidate adding that it would be better for the nation’s unity.