‘Leader, Brother, Friend’: You Truly Belong to Everybody and Nobody, Tinubu Tells Buhari

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, has hailed Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari for what he described as his “neutral stance” during the party’s recent presidential primary, which he won.

Tinubu, while reviewing the build-up to the presidential primary, said the role played by President Buhari ahead of the party primary has shown that he is a “true leader, brother and friend,” who demonstrated a “sense of purpose, composure, and maturity” in the weeks leading to the special convention of the ruling party.

According to a statement issued Saturday by the presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, the former Lagos State governor gave the commendation in a letter addressed to Buhari.

In the letter, as reproduced by Adesina, Tinubu described Buhari as a “true leader, brother and friend”, and also commended him for his maturity, which contributed significantly to the success of the presidential primary.

In the letter to the president, which Tinubu personally signed, the former governor of Lagos State 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.

According to him, “you belonged to everybody in the party and you belonged to none of the individual candidates of the party.”

He congratulated the president for the successful conclusion of the convention and assured him of an issue-focused campaign leading to the 2023 general election.

“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,” the letter reads.

“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.

“Mr President, as the night of 6th June turned to the morning of 7th June; I fully understood and appreciated your stance. You belonged to everybody in the party and you belonged to none of the individual candidates of the party – a true leader, brother and friend.

“I will conclude by once again thanking you for being there for all of us. By the grace of God and with your leadership, guidance and support, I am confident that we will lead our great party, the APC, to victory in the February 2023 general elections. We will ride on the back of your successes. We will build on the foundations of transparency and integrity which you have laid.”

Tinubu thanked delegates and other party leaders for their support during the presidential primary, adding that his emergence as flagbearer was a victory for all members of the APC.

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