Buhari: Working as president stressful, I want to be lazying around at my age

President Muhammadu Buhari says at his age as a septuagenarian he wished to be lazying around like most of his age mates do.

Mr Buhari, 79, stated this in an interview aired on NTA, state-owned TV station Thursday evening.

“The age is telling on me. Working now for six, seven to eight hours per day in the office is no joke,” the president lamented. “There are questions of (the) executive council; memos from as many states as possible to be considered virtually every week. Really, it’s a lot of hard work.

“As I’ve said, I asked for it, and I cannot complain.

“About my age, I see my colleagues, they are now resting, and I assure you that I look forward to the next 17 months when I too will be less busy,” he added.

In 2015, when he was first sworn in, he wasted over six months before appointing ministers, an action economists say was responsible for recession the economy went into under his watch during his first term.

As he began his second term, the economy again fell into another recession but he shifted the blame to the coronavirus pandemic, citing economies of other countries that has melted down due to the outbreak of the deadly disease.

During campaign he promised to use his experience as a military general to crush terrorists but failed to do so years later but rather expressed surprise at the continued existence of the Boko Haram insurgency which has now metamorphosed into banditry described as a business venture.

Already, his spokesman, Garba Shehu, defending his principal who sought the position severally but finally succeeded in his fourth trial said the president was cocerced into taking the top job.