Former President Muhammadu Buhari has reaffirmed his loyalty to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and dismissed speculation of a strained relationship with President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking on Trust TV’s 30 Minutes programme on Monday, Buhari’s former spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, said there is no formal disagreement between the two leaders or between their respective administrations.

Quoting Buhari, Shehu said, “I will never be ungrateful, I will never betray the party that gave me two terms in office.” He stressed that Buhari remains grateful to the APC for providing the platform that led to his election after three failed attempts.

“APC came together and gave him two terms, for which he has remained grateful,” Shehu said.

Addressing reports of political tension within the ruling party, Shehu said such claims are speculative and do not reflect any official position or personal stance from Buhari.

“When people are entitled to hold their opinion, and your interpretation of it is purely your entitlement, I don’t think in a formal and official sense, anybody would talk about distrust or mistrust or a façade between the Buhari administration and the Tinubu administration,” he added.

Shehu also dismissed concerns that Buhari’s camp is uneasy about public discourse on alleged divisions within the APC. “We see statements; we read them when people say these things. Do we get disturbed? I don’t think that is the word,” he said.

Reflecting on the party’s origins, Shehu recalled the significant challenges faced in forming the APC in 2014. He noted that those who witnessed the process firsthand are unlikely to undermine the party now.

“It took a lot of doing, energy, and sacrifice for the APC to have been put in place, for the desperate opposition elements to come together,” he said. “They tried one, two, three times, and they failed. But by this time, they came together in 2014, formed a party, and ran. They won.”

According to Shehu, Buhari continues to identify closely with the APC and remains committed to the party’s unity and stability. (The Guardian)