The President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said President Muhammadu Buhari showed he was a committed, loyal to the All Progressives Congress (APC) when he displayed his ballot papers after casting his vote in the presidential election held nationwide on February 25.
He said the President deliberately displayed his ballot paper to show his level of loyalty to him and the All Progressive family across Nigeria.
Tinubu also said a true democrat will accept the outcome of an election even if it’s not in their favour.
He said this in an apparent response to reaction of Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of Labour Party.
The duo’s parties called for a cancellation of the election while collation was underway. They alleged that the process had been manipulated as a result of the non-use of BVAS.
While responding to questions from State House reporters after a visit to President Muhammmadu Buhari in his country home of Daura, Katsina State, on Wednesday, Tinubu said nation-building ought to be paramount to 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.
Tinubu asserted that no matter how provocative a defeat is, it must be tolerated by democrats.
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.”
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