- Former minister of education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, says he will not be contesting the APC presidential ticket with President Muhammadu Buhari
- He says this is because the ruling party has already adopted Buhari as its sole presidential candidate
- He dismisses reports that he will be settling for a senatorial seat in 2019
Former minister of education and ex-governor of Kano state, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has said he will not be challenging President Muhammadu Buhari for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket because the party has already adopted the latter as its sole presidential candidate.
Shekarau, who recently defected to the ruling party, stated this in an interview with Daily Trust, in which he also dismissed reports that he would be settling for a senatorial seat.
NAIJ.com gathers that Shekarau also stated that he had no grudge against President Buhari as some people believed.
Speaking on his presidential ambition, he said: "Since I’m now in the APC and before my arrival, the party had taken a position that Buhari is the sole candidate, so 2019 is a closed chapter in the APC."
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On his alleged plan to settle for a senatorial seat, Shekarau said: "No, I have not spoken to anybody about it. I have not even made up my mind about it. Look, in 2011 I knew the Senate seat was there. In 2015, when I was in the PDP I knew the seat was there and still I didn’t go for it. So I’m not into the APC for any position and we have not negotiated any deal.
"When we were going into the PDP, I didn’t negotiate any condition with the PDP. It was out of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s magnanimity and the love to work with me that two weeks after our defection he sent the then national chairman, Ahmad Ma’azu to say, ‘please, the president wants you to be part of his cabinet.’ I accepted and that’s how I became a minister. It is not as if I negotiated for it."
Speaking about alleged disagreement with the president, he said: "I will not want to call it a disagreement. I have never had one-on-one disagreement with Buhari, all my life, not even once. You see, there was some perception, kind of.
"There are few people around President Buhari who are mostly from Kano, They are his disciples who, when we came into office, felt that it was their own government. And you know people think everything goes in government.
"Those people who came with frivolous demands and I didn’t agree because the process was contrary to bureaucracy and the rule of law. I’m happy that none of them is around him anymore. Maybe he discovered all of them and sacked them, or they found out that they didn’t fit in and all left. I have been vindicated. I don’t hold any grudge against him and never mentioned anything in public against him. I have no problem with him."
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NAIJ.com previously reported that a former governor of Kano state, Ibrahim Shekarau, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Shekarau announced his decision to join the ruling party after a closed-door meeting with the national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole.
President Buhari on 2019 Presidential Election: Will You Vote For Him? | on NAIJ.com TV
Source: Naija.ng
