Former President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated his successor, President Bola Tinubu, on his emergence as the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
Mr Tinubu was elected Chairman at the 63rd Ordinary Session of the regional bloc held on Sunday, in Bissau, capital of Guinea-Bissau.
Mr Buhari, in a press statement issued by his former Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said he was elated over the President’s election.
“West Africans have entrusted our new leader with an enormous responsibility, and it will be our task as citizens to support him to not let them down.
“I pray the Almighty will make his tenure as Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government see to the restoration of ECOWAS as the bastion of democracy, good governance and a leader in fighting terrorism and climate change on the continent,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Buhari has dismissed reports that he fled his home State in Katsina to the United Kingdom because of insecurity.
Responding to the report by BusinessDay newspaper, Mr Shehu, who described the report as misleading, said the former president has since returned from London to his home town in Daura, Katsina State.
He said, “For misleading the otherwise credible newspaper to falsely report on their front page that former President Muhammadu Buhari has ‘fled’ and is on ‘exile’, when he is currently at home with family in Daura, Katsina State, BusinessDay newspaper should sack their reporter, who didn’t do the job of checking his facts.
“BusinessDay should think 10 times before running any information from the particular reporter and verify it before believing him. Every platform has tools to verify any information, and we don’t expect anything less from BusinessDay.
“If they had browsed through different sources, they would have seen reports of the former President having returned home and enjoying the company of his family. A single fake news in a newspaper has the capability to destroy a reputation built on years of hard work.”
