Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has challenged claims by President Bola Tinubu that he single-handedly made late former President Muhammadu Buhari win the 2015 presidential election.
Amaechi said Buhari’s emergence as president was the product of collective political efforts within the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that he personally played a major role in mobilising support across the country.
Recall that during his 2023 campaign, Tinubu had claimed that he was instrumental in Buhari’s victory in 2015, declaring that it was his turn.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Friday, the former Rivers State governor said he could not openly counter Tinubu’s claim while serving in Buhari’s administration because doing so could have cost him his position as minister.
“When we decided to form the APC, while I was a minister, President Tinubu was claiming he made Buhari president, and I couldn’t respond because I was a minister under President Buhari,” he said.
“That would have been suicidal because Buhari could fire you. I couldn’t have said no then. He wasn’t the president. I couldn’t tell him, ‘You are wrong. You didn’t make President Buhari president.’
“Not only was I the DG of the campaign, but everybody will bear witness that I did all the battle.”
Amaechi said he led extensive political mobilisation as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and director-general of Buhari’s presidential campaign.
He added that although the APC came to power in 2015 on the promise of “change,” the administration achieved mixed results in office.
Vanguard had reported that Amaechi has dismissed speculations that he is seeking a vice-presidential position, insisting that his political ambition is focused solely on the presidency amid ongoing conversations surrounding the ADC presidential ticket battle ahead of the 2023 elections.
