Sunday Dare, the Special Adviser on Public Communications and Orientation to President Bola Tinubu, has attributed former President Muhammadu Buhari’s historic 2015 victory to Tinubu’s pivotal role in Nigerian politics.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Dare highlighted how Buhari’s successful presidential bid was due in large part to Tinubu’s political vision and alliance-building.
“If you look at the role Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu played in the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari, I can say clearly that without Tinubu’s role in forming the party, making the platform to be there, President Buhari would not have emerged,” Dare stated, stressing Tinubu’s influence.
He noted that Buhari had previously run for president unsuccessfully in 2003, 2007, and 2011, campaigns that lacked the coalition support needed to topple the then-dominant People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), resulting from a merger between Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and other factions, was instrumental in Buhari’s victory.
Dare credited Tinubu’s strategic role in both the 2015 and 2019 elections, emphasising, “The electoral victories we won in 2015 and the one in 2019 had the writing of President Tinubu.”
He also acknowledged Tinubu’s recent economic reforms, notably the removal of the petrol subsidy, as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen Nigeria’s economy.