The roadblocks to the ambition of Bola Tinubu, one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, are far from being over, as the Presidency slammed him in a veiled reference to a statement he made last week on President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral
Tinubu had claimed last week Thursday that without him Buhari would not have emerged president, adding that he brought the retired General out from retirement.
But in a statement on Monday, the presidency took a swipe at the comment, but without mentioning Tinubu by name, and declared that no one can or should claim to have single-handedly worked the emergence of Buhari as president seven years ago.
“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,” the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, wrote in the statement title ‘Comment on the statement made by a leading APC flagbearer candidate’.
“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,” Garba said.
Last weekend, the APC threatened to punish Tinubu for that comment.