Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has dismissed claims that President Bola Tinubu was solely responsible for Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the 2015 presidential election.
Amaechi argued that he played a major role in securing Buhari’s win, insisting that he led key political mobilisations that contributed significantly to the outcome.
He was responding to repeated assertions by Tinubu that Buhari’s 2015 victory was made possible through his political intervention and support, including persuading the former president to re-enter the race after earlier failed attempts.
Tinubu had maintained that Buhari lost three previous presidential bids before he convinced him to contest again, and that the coalition he helped build was decisive in the eventual victory.
However, Amaechi rejected that account, stating that multiple actors were involved in the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Buhari’s electoral success.
“When we decided to form the APC, while I was a minister, President Tinubu was claiming he made Buhari president, and I couldn’t respond because I was the minister under President Buhari,” Amaechi said in an interview with AriseTV on Friday.
“That will be suicidal because Buhari could fire you. So I couldn’t have said no then. He wasn’t the president. I couldn’t tell him, ‘You are wrong. You didn’t make President Buhari president’.”
He further stressed his personal involvement in the campaign structure, saying, “Not only was I the DG of the campaign, but everybody will bear witness that I did all the battle.”
Amaechi added that he coordinated nationwide political mobilisation in his capacity as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and director-general of Buhari’s presidential campaign.
“I led the governors’ forum. I crisscrossed the country fighting here and there,” he said.
Reflecting on the APC’s rise to power under the “change” slogan, he noted that the administration delivered mixed results.
“Did we achieve the change? Here and there. In some areas, well, we did. In some areas, we did not,” he said.
