President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday evening told state governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to give him more time to decide whether or not he would seek re-election in 2019.
He told the governors this at a meeting they had with him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting held behind closed doors.
Okorocha said the President promised them that he would soon address the nation and the caucus of the party on the matter.
The governor said, “We discussed so many issues that affect the nation, our party and Mr. President’s ambition to run for the 2019 presidential election.
“It is the desire of the governors that Mr. President should run for this exalted office given his performance in the last two years. We believe that if he continues, Nigeria will be better for it.
“Anyhow, Mr. President, in his usual manner, has requested that we give him time and that he will address the nation and the caucus of the party very soon.
“So, we should be full of expectations that Mr. President will make officially known to Nigerians his intentions but we hope that his response will be in line with what the governors are thinking.”
That was the second time Buhari would be meeting the APC governors in the last one week.
The governors had last Friday met with him in his country home in Daura, Katsina State.
Although it was believed that the meeting had to do with the politics of 2019, Okorocha had told reporters that the governors visited Buhari to commiserate with him on the death of two members of his extended family.
The APC governors who met with Buhari had earlier in the day joined other governors from other political parties and former Presidents and Heads of Government for a meeting of the Council of State.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, among other political and religious leaders had asked Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.
