President Muhammadu Buhari confessed that he was under tension while the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal delivered its judgement on Wednesday, saying he would have gone into trauma. This is contrary to an earlier position that he was unbothered by the proceedings.
Buhari presided over Federal Executive Council (FEC) for his second term for the first time on Wednesday which coincided with the tribunal judgement.
According to Buhari, who spoke when he received the All Progressives Congress state governors on Friday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said that he used the FEC meeting to absorb pressure.
Buhari told the governors: “On this judgment, again it was a fabulous coincidence that it came almost the same time the first FEC meeting of this government was taking place.
“It lasted about the same time with the judgment. I thank God for that because I think I would have gone into trauma or something. So, I was busy trying to concentrate on the memos and the first memo being the budget took more than five hours, while the judgment went on for nine hours, we were doing ours (FEC meeting) for about seven hours here.
“It is a very interesting coincidence and I thank God for it because I would have been in trauma or something of that sort”, he said.
His confession went contrary to the boastful disposition of the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, who had consistently stated up until Friday that neither Buhari nor the APC entertained any fears that the judgment would be won by the President.
Similarly, a State House statement issued on Wednesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, had claimed that Buhari was “unperturbed”.
Also, the statement quoted the President: “Good conscience fears no evil report. I was unperturbed all along because I knew Nigerians freely gave us the mandate. We are now vindicated.”
However, the confession by Buhari on Friday might indicate that the earlier statement by the media office did not originate from the President or that he knew nothing about it.