No Evidence of Rift Between Buhari and Tinubu
The Claim
There is a widening rift between President Buhari and Tinubu in anticipation of the 2023 election.
News posted on
Emerging story
On Wednesday, March 24, the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust published two stories titled, Buhari, Tinubu Have Not Sat Together In 14 Months and 2023: Crack In Buhari, Tinubu Camps Widens. Both articles immediately gained massive traction with hundreds of retweets. They eventually culminated in the the trending of #Tinubu, which was tweeted over 16k times.
Sahara Reporters published their own version of the story, titled, 2023: Buhari Not Convinced Tinubu Is The Right Successor—Minister.
The reports claimed that there is a rift between President Buhari and the former governor of Lagos and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress. The candidature of Tinubu for the 2023 presidential election was the alleged point of contention.
These claims cited the fact that the duo have not been seen together in the last 14 months. In addition, they stated that Tinubu has not visited Aso Rock for a while now despite the fact that governors and other important APC members regularly met with the president.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar finds claims about President Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be false. The rumor of a rift between these two political figureheads has been debunked by the presidency.
In a State House Press Release, the presidency said that the rumor was the handiwork of cynics and mischief makers. It described Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a strong ally of the president.
It went further to say that President Buhari and Asiwaju both have a very strong commitment to the All Progressives Congress. They are committed towards bringing change to the Nigerian people.
Part of the official statement reads: "To President Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu remains one of the most respected political leaders in the country who has stuck to his principles in the face of all adversities. He was instrumental to the formation, growth and development of the APC into a formidable political party and the political alliance is waxing even stronger.”
It continued: “If Asiwaju is not a frequent face in the Aso Rock Villa, it is on account of the fact that he is not a cabinet member of this government. The fact that he is not every day around the Villa does not make him less of a friend to the President and this administration.”
President Buhari teamed up with Tunubu along with several others to form the All Progressives Congress in 2013. It was a collaboration which finally wrestled power from the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 which had been in power since the return to democracy some 16 years earlier.
