One of the media aides to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, says Mr Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election despite officials in President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, including Abdullahi Adamu, the former chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) and other party members working against him.
“Even though our candidate is a member of the ruling party, there were all kinds of things that some officials of the former government did that ought to have worked seriously against us. Like the sudden currency change in an election year. We’ve been having fuel all over the country, and all of a sudden, we had fuel scarcity.
“The worse of the two was currency change. People were complaining everywhere. There was no money. Some people said they were paying as much as N20,000 to get N100,000. Nigerians were buying their own money. Public resentment built up against the APC and its presidential candidate,” Mr Onanuga said.
Mr Onanuga disclosed this in an interview with Tribune published on Wednesday. He attributed Mr Tinubu’s victory to “God’s handiwork,” though Mr Adamu worked to scheme Mr Tinubu out of the race in favour of former Senate President Ahmad Lawan.
“Tinubu didn’t have the support of some people in his party. For instance, the party chairman nearly gave a so-called consensus ticket to Senator Ahmad Lawan. Then, there were fuel scarcity and currency scarcity problems, deliberately thrown on his path by the governing party,” Mr Onanuga said.
Garba Shehu, spokesperson for the former president, a few days before leaving office on May 29, said Mr Buhari allowed Mr Tinubu to win the election and Mr Tinubu is aware that Mr Buhari allowed him to win.
“When he (Tinubu) took his certificate from INEC, the first thing he did was that he flew to Daura and showed it to the president,” stated Mr Shehu in an interview.
“The incoming president Bola Tinubu never gets tired of saying that the president allowed him to win. It is very significant. He allowed him to win in a free and fair process,” Mr Buhari’s media aide explained.
