The presidency has hit back at the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following comments made about the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd.).
Punch Metro reported that former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu while addressing APC delegates ahead of the party’s primary elections last Thursday, claimed that Buhari would not have emerged the president in 2015 without him.
However, in a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the Presidency 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.”
Shehu also noted that the success of the historic 2015 election can’t be attributed to one person alone, noting that many people played a part in defeating Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who was the sitting president.
The statement titled, ‘Comment On The Statement Made By A Leading APC Flagbearer Candidate’ read:
“It is perhaps not surprising that on the eve of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 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 the possible.
“Yet as important as that moment 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.”