2019: Buhari's Automatic Ticket Suffers Setback As NEC Defers Motion To Endorse The President

The 2019 re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday suffered a setback as the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party, deferred an ‘informal’ motion to endorse an automatic second term ticket for President Buhari.

NEC, however, passed a vote of confidence on the President as well as Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee, NWC, saying both men had done well.

Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting which lasted  about two and half hours, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said the issue of 2019 was not on the agenda of the NEC meeting.

“Today’s meeting was not about 2019 elections. When we talk about 2019 in the context of the agenda you saw, we are talking about membership registration, the drive for membership and others.

‘’We are not talking about elections. Even though there was a motion on the floor that called for a vote of confidence on the President, some of us felt it was not necessary because there is nowhere that his confidence is shaking. But the motion was taken and passed.

“But there was a second leg to that motion which called for the adoption of the candidature of the President, but it was deferred for now and no decision was taken because that is not the major reason we were here,” he said.