By DAVID IORJA, Abuja –
The Presidency has distanced itself from Malam mamman Daura’s controversial “Nigerian presidency by competence” interview on the BBC Hausa service, declaring that such views were his own.
In the said interview aired during the week, Daura, who is President Muhammadu Buhari’s cousin told the BBC: “This turn-by-turn, it was done once, it was done twice, and it was done thrice… It is better for this country to be one…it should be for the most competent and not for someone who comes from somewhere. It is time for the country to unite and go for the most competent person to lead the nation.”
“since Nigerians have tried the rotational presidency about thrice already, it would be better to go for the most qualified candidate in 2023, irrespective of whether he comes from the North or the South, which would be better for the nation’s unity,” continued Daura, the assumed head of the president’s Kitchen Cabinet.
Ever since the interview was monitored and reported, those views have continued to attract serious controversies, with not a few analysts and commentators concluding that Daura was simply voicing out the viewpoint of the North.
As one columnist put it on Friday, “having been in power for several years and not willing to part with it, the North has come up with another strategy aimed at keeping them in power beyond 2023.”
But reacting to the development, the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), Garba Shehu, said in a statement on Saturday, “Malam Mamman’s views are his own, and he has said so.”
The statement reads in full:
“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.”
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