ABUJA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will run for a second term of office in the next presidential election, party and government officials said on Monday.
The 75-year-old Buhari, at a meeting in Abuja, officially told leaders of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) party of his intention, said Nasir El-Rufai, governor of the northwestern state of Kaduna.
Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu also confirmed to Xinhua that "the president will bid for the presidential ticket of the APC."
"Yes, he has said it," Shehu told Xinhua over the phone.
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 sick and away from the country for months between 2016 and 2017.
In 2015, as an opposition party candidate, he defeated incumbent 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.
Nigeria is scheduled to hold its next presidential election in early 2019.
