President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday has replied the national leader of all progressives Congress APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu over his claim that he helped him become the president.
In a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the Buhari said 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.”
Tinubu was seen in a video on Tuesday revealing how he help the President and other APC leaders win elections in 2015.
Although, Tinubu had issued a statement retracting the comments and stated that he was misinterpreted.
Tinubu, who was in Ogun State to seek delegates support for his presidential ambition, recalled how Buhari had, out of frustration, broken down in tears on television, declaring he was done trying to become President after failing for the third time.
Tinubu said “If not me that led the war front, Buhari would not have emerged. He contested first, second and third times, but lost. He even wept on television, declaring that he would not contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina; I told him you would contest and win, but ‘you would not joke with Yoruba matters’.
“Since he has emerged, I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get a contract.
“This time, it’s the Yoruba’s turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my tenure,” Tinubu had declared.
His declaration had gone viral, generating controversies on social media
But in a statement titled ‘Comment on the statement made by a leading APC flagbearer candidate.’, Buhari has reacted
The statement reads in part: “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,” the statement ended
