TheCable

The presidency says millions of Nigerians elected President Muhammadu Buhari into office in 2015.

According to the presidency, no single individual can claim to have been responsible for Buhari becoming president.

The presidency’s comment is in reaction to the remarks of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a presidential hopeful of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

While addressing delegates in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital, on Thursday, Tinubu said Buhari wouldn’t have become president without him.

The former Lagos governor said Buhari had given up on the prospect of leading Nigeria until he intervened.

In a statement issued on Monday by Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to Buhari, the presidency said many people played “parts large and small” in the 2015 election.

The statement reads: “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 presidency added that the aspirant who has the aforementioned qualities “is the one to lead our party and our country forward”.