Phrank Shaibu, a spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar campaign, has said that the Rotimi Amaechi leaked tape has shown that even the president’s appointees lacked confidence in his ability to transform the country.

He said, “The President should just quit honorably instead of wasting taxpayers monies on a failed reelection bid.

“The truth is that the other day, the President confessed that the economy had collapsed under his watch.

“On another occasion, the wife confessed to the fact that, the cabal and not her dearest husband, President Buhari was in-charge of the country and now, the Director General Of his re-election campaign has confessed to the lack of capacity of President Buhari and the dismal failure of his administration.

“Truth is, the President has established a record of failures which probably no other President would ever equal or erase. Mrs Aishat Buhari was partially correct when she stated that two people are preventing her husband from performing well. With this audio tape, if the two don’t include her husband then she is not completely being truthful.”

It is not the first time a minister would appear to be expressing no confidence in the leadership of Mr Buhari in a leaked recording.

Former minister for women affairs, Aisha Alhassan, was in a recording – which he admitted – saying she preferred Mr Abubakar to Mr Buhari as president from 2019.

Shaibu had earlier released a recording of Amaechi portraying Buhari as a dismal failure who has been unable to meet the expectations of various segments of the society, ending with a dismissal of Nigeria as a never-going-to-change hopeless nation.

The transcript of the recording reads: “These are not things you publish ooo. If you publish them, you will never sit with me any day.

“Three years of Buhari oo, everybody is crying, crying…pressmen are crying, farmers are crying, workers are crying, politicians are crying, students are crying, three years oo!

“The rate of poverty is very high. The people are hungry. Nigeria will never change!”