The Presidency on Monday said no single individual should claim political victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 presidential election.
Presidential aspirant Bola Tinubu recently said that President Muhammadu Buhari would not have been president without his support.
Reacting to Tinubu’s comments, President Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement: “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 this 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.”
Following the backlash that greeted Tinubu’s comments, the APC bigwig said he was misunderstood and would never disrespect President Buhari.
