Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan has denied that he plans to contest the 2023 Presidency as reported in some dailies, describing those behind the report as lazy journalists.
In a reactionary statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President, Ola Awoniyi, said the report was concocted and sent for publication in a beer parlour.
“The attention of the office of the President of the Senate has been drawn to a rather puerile media report that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, is making plans to run for president in 2023.
“The report was first published by the Daily Independent newspaper of Friday, 17th July, 2020 and reproduced later by the Sahara Reporters.
“It is easy to see that the report emanated from the sort of practice that drags the noble profession of journalism to the gutters as it only dresses up the lazy fantasy of its unimaginative authors as a fact.
“The report apparently has its source in beer parlour gossips and should be treated with the contempt which it and those who concocted it deserves.
“It is true that the Senate President was involved in the consultations that President Muhammadu Buhari held prior to the last emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC).
“But there was nothing extra-ordinary in his involvement in such consultations, given his status as holder of one of the highest political offices in Nigeria and on the platform of the APC. Such is required of any concerned member of the party.
“It is therefore sheer mischief for anyone to read ulterior motives to the Senate President joining hands with the President and other leaders in resolving misunderstanding in their own party.
The statement urged idle journalists to get occupied with useful reports so as not to bastardise the profession.
“We advise the idle pseudo-journalists to look for other engagements and stop bastardising this noble profession.”
