The presidency criticises Tinubu for claiming credit for Buhari's victory.

No one could or should claim to have single-handedly engineered the emergence of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) as President in the 2015 general elections, the Presidency declared on Monday in Abuja.

The Presidency said in a statement signed by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President for Media and Publicity, that the outcome of the next general election should not be determined by the past, and that what matters today is to elect a candidate who will "make our country better than it has ever been."

'Comment on a statement made by a major APC flagbearer candidate,' the statement reads.

According to INFOGONG, former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu caused a stir last Thursday when he asserted that Buhari would not have won the presidency in 2015 if it hadn't been for him.

The presidential candidate made the remark while speaking to APC delegates at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, ahead of the party's primary election.

"It is perhaps not unexpected that on the eve of the APC flagbearer primary, there are those running as candidates who desire to link themselves with the President's rise to elected office seven years ago," the White House remarked.

Many people played major and minor roles in his historic election in 2015, when he became the first opposition candidate to unseat an incumbent President in a peaceful transfer of power at the ballot box.

There are those who recommended the President to run again; those who decided to create a political party – the APC – that may finally be the political vehicle capable of delivering triumph where all other opposition parties and alliances had failed previously.

Those judgments may have been reached by a small group of people. Thousands of people delivered them, and tens of millions voted for them. No one can or should claim credit for making this happen."

It went on to say that, as important as the 2015 triumph was, it should not determine the outcome of the next general election.

"What counts is the future: the policy platforms, the ideas, the drive, and the commitment to take over the President's leadership of our country and build upon his legacy to make our country better than it has ever been," the Presidency added.