Mallam Garba Shehu, media aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, has dismissed widespread speculation suggesting a fallout between his principal and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking during an appearance on Trust TV’s 30 Minutes, Shehu clarified that there is no official indication of distrust or conflict between both leaders, contrary to growing political rumors.
“When people are entitled to hold their opinion, and your interpretation of it is purely your entitlement,” Shehu said.
“I don’t think in a formal and official sense, anybody would talk about distrust or mistrust or a façade between the Buhari administration and the Tinubu administration.”
He emphasized that Buhari remains loyal to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party under which he was elected president after three failed attempts.
“For Muhammadu Buhari, for him, he’s essentially an APC member,” Shehu stated.
“He does not forget the fact that he ran one, two, three times and failed to get the presidency until they cobbled together the APC.”
“APC came together and gave him two terms, for which he has remained grateful, and says—and that’s what I’ve learned from him—‘I will never be ungrateful. I will never betray the party that gave me two terms in office.’”
Addressing the ongoing discourse about cracks within the ruling party, Shehu maintained that such commentary does not unsettle Buhari’s camp.
“We see statements; we read them when people say these things. Do we get disturbed? I don’t think that is the word,” he noted.
Shehu also reminded Nigerians of the historical struggle involved in founding the APC, arguing that those who labored to build the party would hardly be interested in destabilizing it now.
“It took a lot of doing, energy, and sacrifice for the APC to have been put in place, for the desperate opposition elements to come together,” he said.
“They tried one, two, three times, and they failed. But by this time, they came together in 2014, formed a party, and ran in 2014.”
“They won. Which means, in effect, that the people who were around, who saw how much sweat it took to build this coalition I think they are not likely to be the ones who are trying to fracture it.”
