"We enjoin them to join our party so that together, we shall take up the same challenges for which they offered their services."
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, has tasked the opposition parties to join hands with the party to take Nigeria to a greater height.
Mr Adamu said this on Thursday in Abuja, when he spoke with journalists in Abuja, saying that Mr Tinubu clearly won the 25 February presidential election fair and square.
Some opposition parties in the contest have since rejected the result of the election.
The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and that of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who came second and third in the election, have vowed to challenge its result in court.
On its part, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) called for the cancellation of the result.
But Mr Adamu asked the parties to join the APC to tackle the challenges they offer.
"I offer him my very hearty congratulations. Mr President-elect, with your victory, the people have also renewed the tenancy of our political party in Aso Rock, ours is the party the people can trust.
"As APC national chairman, our victory is a humbling, but proud experience for me.
"We recognise the victors, but we do not recognise the vanquished, our party extends its hands of patriotism to them.
"We enjoin them to join our party so that together, we shall take up the same challenges for which they offered their services," he said.
Mr Adamu said the judgement of the electorate was informed and supreme, saying that the choice they made was the choice they could live with.
"We salute them, we salute their free and fair decision, we accept the victory of our presidential candidate and the party with humility and gratitude to the almighty God and the entire people of this great nation.
"We join millions of our compatriots in congratulating the president-elect and indeed all our members in celebrating the resounding victory of our party at the polls," Mr Adamu said.
He also congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari for the peaceful conduct of the elections, saying that he delivered on his promise to provide an enabling level field for all the political parties and their candidates.
Mr Adamu said Mr Buhari stood for freedom of choice and action, adding that his legacy of abiding by the rule of law shall be the hallmark of APC leadership in the country.
He thanked the president for standing by the party, especially its presidential candidate Mr Tinubu, adding that he had cemented his place in national history.
"We have all run the good race, the victory has gone to one man, but the race was not run by him alone. He won because we stood by him.
"He won because we as members of the party were committed to his victory and the victory of our party at all levels in the general elections.
"He won because the electorate trust him and believe he has the capacity to heal the nation's wounds and set it along the path of unity and prosperity.
"The people have trusted their weal and welfare to the able hands of the president-elect and the vice-president-elect," the national chairman said.
He added that Mr Tinubu's victory belonged to the less previladged and the security agencies who put their lives on the line and ensured the peaceful conduct of the election at all levels.
He said the victory also belonged to all Nigerians who collectively showed a determination to birth a new national leadership.
"It belongs especially to the chairman and the members of INEC, they laboured under a dark cloud of sabotage. Its offices were torched in several states, its personnel were similarly attacked.
"But its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the man who has done more than anyone else in that difficult office, refused to be intimidated and be deflected from doing his duty to his country and his compatriots," Mr Adamu said.
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This, he said, was because the INEC chairman and members of the commission were committed to ensuring a free, fair, transparent, and credible elections.
Mr Adamu said they found sustenance in the courage to serve the nation and its people and help the people institute a government of their choice, adding that Nigerians must remain grateful to the commission.
He thanked the mass media for their role in the conduct of the elections, saying that they too ran the good race and must share in the victory.
Mr Adamu congratulated the candidates of opposition political parties, saying that their loss was not a rejection of what they stood for by the people.
"It is in the nature of competitions among political parties that out of the many that offer themselves to serve the people, only one is chosen at any one time," he said.
