The former Minister of Sports and Youth Development hailed
Tinubu’s role in the emergence of Buhari.
Before dislodging the Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal
Government in 2015, Buhari had contested for the presidency in the 2003, 2007
and 2011 elections but failed.
However, prior to the 2015 general elections, a merger of
political parties – Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Tinubu’s
Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and some others gave birth to the All
Progressives Congress, APC, which later defeated the Peoples Democratic Party.
Dare was on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he
maintained that Buhari’s quest to become President would not have come to
fruition without Tinubu’s support.
“If you look at the role Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu played in
the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari and I can say clearly that without Tinubu’s
role in forming the party, making the platform to be there, President Buhari
would not have emerged,” he said.
Speaking further, Dare said he was part of the politicians
that sold the idea of fielding Buhari as the then-APC presidential candidate.
“It couldn’t have been only me, it was a team. The electoral
victories we won in 2015 and the one in 2019 had the writing of President
Tinubu. We are a party and beyond me, several other people were also invited,”
he stated.
Dare stated that the President should be commended for
removing the subsidy on petrol and other reforms aimed at positioning the
nation’s economy.