Amaechi: Tinubu didn’t single-handedly make Buhari president — I fought the political battle

FORMER Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, has challenged claims by President Bola Tinubu that he was solely responsible for the emergence of late Muhammadu Buhari as president in 2015.

Amaechi said Buhari’s victory was the outcome of collective efforts within the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that he played a major role in the political mobilisation that led to the party’s success at the polls.

The former Rivers governor spoke while reacting to Tinubu’s repeated assertion that Buhari only returned to contest and eventually won the presidency because of his persuasion and political backing ahead of the 2015 election.

Tinubu had maintained that Buhari failed in 3 previous presidential bids before he personally visited him in Katsina and convinced him to make another attempt, which later resulted in victory through the coalition that formed the APC.

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However, Amaechi dismissed the suggestion that one individual was solely responsible for Buhari’s emergence, stressing that several political actors contributed significantly to the formation of the APC and the eventual electoral triumph.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Friday, Amaechi said he had previously refrained from publicly countering Tinubu’s claims because he was serving in Buhari’s administration at the time.

“When we decided to form the APC, while I was a minister, President Tinubu was claiming he made Buhari president, and I couldn’t respond because I was the minister under President Buhari,” he said.

According to Amaechi, publicly disputing the narrative while serving in government could have jeopardised his position in Buhari’s cabinet.

“He wasn’t the president then. I couldn’t tell him, ‘You are wrong. You didn’t make President Buhari president.’ Not only was I the DG of the campaign, but everybody will bear witness that I did all the battle,” he added.

Amaechi further stated that as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and director-general of Buhari’s presidential campaign, he undertook extensive political mobilisation across the country in support of the APC’s bid for power.

“I led the governors’ forum. I crisscrossed the country fighting here and there,” he said.

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Reflecting on the APC administration’s ‘change’ agenda after taking office in 2015, Amaechi said the government achieved progress in some areas while falling short in others.

“Did we achieve the change? Here and there. In some areas, well, we did. In some areas, we did not,” he said.