Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect, has claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrated his dedication and loyalty to the All-Progressives Congress (APC) when he displayed his voting papers after casting his vote in the February 25 national presidential election.
Tinubu also said a true democrat will accept the outcome of an election even if it’s not in their favour. He made this comment in apparent response to Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidates for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
When collation was taking place, the two parties demanded that the election be canceled. They alleged that the process had been manipulated as a result of the non-use of BVAS.
After meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in his rural home of Daura, Katsina State, on Wednesday, Tinubu responded to inquiries from State House media by saying that nation-building should be a top priority for Democrats.
Tinubu, who commended the President for supporting democracy in Africa, said he was following the process, building a successor and ready to hand over peacefully.
According to Tinubu, democrats must put up with defeats regardless of how controversial they may be.
On the motive behind his visit to the President, he said: “I came to present the certificate of return to him (Buhari) as the party leader and commend his efforts in supporting democracy in Africa, this is the largest democracy in Africa and he couldn’t have done any better, we are lucky there is no incident, there is no accident, and no matter how provocative a defeat is, we still have to tolerate it because we are democrats and we are trying to build a nation.”
On the takeaways from the visit, he identified: “the calmness and commitment and the fact that after voting, he taught us again dedication to our party by displaying his ballot papers, loyalty to the party and being ready to create a future for all of us and no matter how tempting the problem of democracy is, he is following the process, building a successor and ready to hand over peacefully, you know in Africa it’s a big deal you know.”
Asked to speak on messages of congratulations, Tinubu said: “oh very many, many of that in fact as far as Europe, the stock market reacted positively well, there was a goodwill message from Macron, the President of France.”
