The 2023 presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as 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.
In a letter to the President, which he personally signed, Tinubu expressed gratitude for Buhari’s congratulatory letter to him, adding that while all the contestants expected him to “choose” his successor, he simply allowed a level playing field.
According to Tinubu, “You belonged to everybody in the party and you belonged to none of the individual candidates of the party.”
The former Lagos State governor congratulated the President for the successful conclusion of the Convention and assured him of an issue focused campaign leading to the 2023 general elections.
This was disclosed in a statement by Femi Adesina, the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, on Saturday.
Below is Tinubu’s letter to Buhari:
“Dear Mr President,
DEEP APPRECIATION
I bring you sincere fraternal greetings and congratulations on the successful conclusion of the special Presidential Convention of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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.
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.”
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