Nigerian President to run for second term

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will run for a second term of office, party and government officials said on Monday.

The 75-year-old Buhari told leaders of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) party of his intention to contest the 2019 presidential election too, said Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna state.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu told Xinhua news agency that "the President will bid for the presidential ticket of the APC".

Buhari's announcement came as no surprise to many Nigerians as some senior officials and presidential aides had already dropped the hint several months before.

Buhari was ill and away from the country for months between 2016 and 2017. In 2015, as an opposition party candidate, he defeated then President Goodluck Jonathan by a margin of 2.57 million votes. It was the first time in Nigeria's history that a sitting President was defeated at the polls.

Buhari served as head of state of Nigeria for almost two years, having led a military coup d'etat in December 1983.

--IANS

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