The presidency has formally responded to the outburst of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos governor, insisting that he(Tinubu) alone didn’t facilitate the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
The reaction is coming barely few hours after the All Progressives Congress, APC, national convention to elect a presidential flag bearer for the 2023 general elections formally kicked off in Abuja.
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu, stated this in a statement issued on Monday.
The response by the presidential aide is also coming exactly five days after Tinubu had seized an APC delegates forum in Ogun State to recount how he facilitated the emergence of President Buhari in 2015 and 2019.
While Tinubu’s outburst elicited strong reactions from cross sections of Nigerians, Shehu, in an apparent move to defend his principal, said many other people contributed in one way or another to the victory of the President.
Shehu in an apparent move to mock the APC leader, said it is not surprising that on the eve of the APC primary, there are those running as candidates who wish to associate themselves with the President’s rise to elected office seven years ago.
According to the presidential spokesman, 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.
He said some even 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.
According to him, 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.
In taking Tinubu to the cleaners, the Presidency said as important as that moment was, it is not what should decide the next general election.
Shehu also insisted that what should matter now 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,” the presidential aide stated.
