•Tinubu, Amaechi and late Buhari
Former Minister of Transportation and Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has challenged President Bola Tinubu’s assertion that he was chiefly responsible for the election of late former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Amaechi, who served as Director-General of Buhari’s 2015 presidential campaign, insisted that Buhari’s victory was the product of collective efforts within the All Progressives Congress (APC), reports Weekend Trust.
The former minister said he played a leading role in the political mobilisation that culminated in the APC’s historic defeat of the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television, the former Rivers State governor responded to Tinubu’s repeated claims that Buhari would not have emerged president without his intervention and support.
Tinubu has on several occasions maintained that Buhari had failed in three previous presidential contests before he persuaded him to return to the race ahead of the 2015 general election.
According to the president, he personally visited Buhari in Katsina and encouraged him to contest again, while also helping to build the political coalition that eventually secured victory.
However, Amaechi said it would be inaccurate to credit a single individual for Buhari’s emergence, arguing that many key actors contributed to the formation of the APC and the success of its presidential campaign.
“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,” Amaechi said.
“That will be suicidal because Buhari could fire you. So I couldn’t have said no then. He wasn’t the president. I couldn’t tell him, ‘You are wrong. You didn’t make President Buhari president’.”
The former minister maintained that his role in the 2015 election was significant, noting that he coordinated the campaign and spearheaded political engagements across the country.
“Not only was I the DG of the campaign, but everybody will bear witness that I did all the battle,” he said.
Amaechi further recalled his position as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum at the time, saying he travelled extensively to galvanise support for Buhari and the APC.
“I led the governors’ forum. I crisscrossed the country fighting here and there,” he stated.
Reflecting on the APC administration that came to power on the strength of its “Change” agenda, Amaechi said the government achieved some of its objectives but fell short in other areas.
“Did we achieve the Change? Here and there. In some areas, well, we did. In some areas, we did not,” he said.
The comments add to the ongoing debate over the political forces and personalities that shaped Buhari’s rise to power in 2015, a watershed election that marked the first time an incumbent president was defeated at the polls in Nigeria.
