In responding to Tinubu, Buhari said 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
President Muhammadu Buhari has replied to former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, over the claim that he engineered his victory in the 2015 presidential election.
According to a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari said the past should not decide the outcome of the next general election and that what mattered today is to elect a candidate that will “make our country better than it has ever been.”
The statement is titled, ‘Comment on the statement made by a leading APC flagbearer candidate.’
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The statement reads: “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 might 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 Presidency added.
