Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has revealed how together with other presidential aspirants and the party leaders they pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to name his preferred candidate to no avail.
He said instead, as a “true leader, brother and friend” , the president demonstrated a “sense of purpose, composure, and maturity” in the weeks leading to the special convention of the party by choosing to be neutral on who clinches the party’s ticket.
In a letter to the president, Tinubu expressed gratitude for the president’s congratulatory letter to him, adding that while all the contestants expected President Buhari to “choose” his successor, he simply allowed a level playing field.
He wrote: “Your Excellency, one must admire the sense of purpose, composure, and maturity you demonstrated in the weeks and months preceding the primary elections of our great party. As aspirants and party leaders, we all pleaded with you to “choose” your successor.
“Naturally, this is expected especially in African democracy. Up until the 6th of June, 2022, the day of the APC Presidential primaries, the whole of Nigeria, including myself, was waiting for you to announce your preferred candidate. All of us thought and believed this was a very simple matter.
“However, it was only as the primary went into the night and as the candidates walked up to the podium and spoke that I fully and truly appreciated your position and stance to be neutral and non-aligned to any of us. As the first person to speak, I also had the special vantage point to carefully hear, without any distraction, what the other candidates had to say.
“As the hours rolled by that evening, it became clear to me that all of us were your preferred candidates. As you captured it aptly in your letter to me, the “spirit” of 2013 and 2014 when we created and built APC was there for all to see.”
Tinubu noted that they all had deep personal and strong bonds with Buhari the way they had together back then when the APC was formed, adding that “our bonds remained strong up till now.
“Mr. President, as the night of 6 June turned to morning of 7 June, I fully understood and appreciated your stance.
“You belong to everybody in the party and you belong to none of the individual candidates of the party.”
A statement by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, further noted that Tinubu congratulated the president for the successful conclusion of the convention and assured him of an issue-focused campaign, leading to the 2023 general elections.
“On behalf of my wife, Oluremi, and my entire family, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the very special and personal congratulatory letter you sent to me. I am deeply honored. Your words in that letter were reassuring, reenergizing, and reinvigoratin,” the presidential aspirant told the president.
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