Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to late Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Garba Shehu, has come out to say that PMB never suported Atiku against Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023.
He recently revealed that Tinubu himself said that Buhari did nothing to stop him from being president.
Speaking during an interview with Channels TV, Garba said that Buhari advised Tinubu, Osinbajo and Amaechi to run for presidency because he was not going to tell them no after they consulted him.
According to him, the late president already made it clear that he is for everyone and no one in 2015, so he never tried to control anyone or anything as a politician.
He stated that name droppers said all sorts of things to tarnish his name, but they were mostly lies.
“No, it didn’t happen. Somebody must have seen that in the dream. I met President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after his victory and he told me that President Buhari allowed him to win in a free and fair election.
Each one who came before him, he gave a certificate of no objection. “You want to run? Ok”. And, don’t forget that even that crowd who went for the primary, there was one that he saw very close to him.
Recall the joke in Buhari’s 2015 statement, “I belong to everyone, I belong to no one”. That was politics he played…
He played through to type; he didn’t seek to dictate, rather, he said the party will decide. We gave a statement to that effect and it was proven there. Name droppers could have said anything using his name but, certainly, it was never him,” he said.
He further noted that Nigerians should not call him a liar for saying rat destroyed cables in his office, stressing that it was mainly a distraction from the president’s ill health.
Shehu concluded by saying that his story was supposed to be a spin, but it ended up making citizens question Buhari’s capability as a president.
“I just read one story where they said I lied. I was spinning the rat story. I didn’t lie. There was a story that rats ate cables in the president’s office and when I was trying to explain why the president was operating from home, I said rat destroyed cables in his office.
It happened, although that was to provide something for discussion, at least, for that moment as people were speculating that he was not good enough to continue as president. It was a spin and it backfired,” he added.
