Presidency responds to Tinubu’s outburst against Buhari in Abeokuta

The Presidency has responded to the claims of a frontline Presidential aspirant and National leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu that without him President Muhammadu Buhari would not have emerged as the president in 2015.

The Presidency in its reaction said that no one single individual can claim to have single-handedly engineered the emergence of President Buhari as he was elected by millions of Nigerians into office.

This disclosure is contained in a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, where he said that the past should not decide the next general election and what matters today is to elect a candidate that would “make our country better than it has ever been.”

Shehu in the statement titled, ‘Comment on the statement made by a leading APC flagbearer candidate’, said many people played parts large and small in 2015 general election.

The Presidency in its statement said, “It is perhaps not surprising that on the eve of the All Progressives Congress flagbearer primary there are those running as candidates who wish to associate themselves with the President’s rise to elected office seven years ago.

“There are many people who played parts large and small in his historic election in 2015, making history as the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president with power changing hands peacefully at the ballot box.

“There are those who advised the President to run again; those who decided to build a political party – the APC – that could finally be the political vehicle capable of delivering victory where all other opposition parties and alliances before it had failed.

“Those decisions may have been agreed upon by a few. But they were delivered by thousands and voted for by tens of millions. No one can or should claim to have made this possible.”

It added that as crucial as the 2015 victory was, it is not what should decide the next general election.

“What matters is the future: the policy platforms, the ideas, the drive, and the determination to take over the President’s stewardship of our country and build upon his legacy to make our country better than it has ever been.

“The person most demonstrable in those qualities is the one to lead our party and our country forward.’’

It would be recalled that on Thursday, June 2, while on a campaign visit to solicit for the support of the party delegates from Ogun state towards his presidential ambition, Tinubu said that President Muhammadu Buhari would not have won the 2015 presidential election without his support having failed three times in the past.