Former presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, has dismissed claims that ex-President Muhammadu Buhari deliberately left the burden of fuel subsidy removal for President Bola Tinubu’s administration in order to make governance difficult for his successor.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday during a media interaction ahead of the public presentation of his new book, According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesperson’s Experience, scheduled for July 9, Shehu said there was no plot by Buhari to sabotage the Tinubu administration.
He was responding to widespread speculation that Buhari, by delaying the removal of petrol subsidy until the final national budget of his administration in 2023, had set a political trap to pitch Nigerians against the new government.
Describing such allegations as baseless, Shehu stressed that both leaders belonged to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and there was no reason Buhari would have worked against his own party’s continuity in power.
“Both President Buhari and the incoming President, Bola Tinubu, were members of the APC. So we couldn’t have planned to sabotage our own government,” he said.
Shehu maintained that Buhari led with integrity and left office with his reputation intact.
“President Buhari was above corruption. He came to government with integrity and left with his integrity intact. He did his best. He did well for the country and history will be kind to him. He wasn’t a showman—he wanted his works to impact the lives of Nigerians,” he added.
On his decision to serve in the Buhari administration despite his former ties to ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Shehu said he had no regrets, insisting he did nothing wrong by making the career switch.
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