By our reporter| The gloves appear to be coming off as the D-day for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) special convention to elect its flagbearer for the 2023 presidential election approaches as one of the leading contenders for the top job, Bola Tinubu on Thursday claimed that Buhari would have lost the election in 2015 if not for his efforts.
Tinubu, who made the comment in Abeokuta while addressing delegates, recalled his role in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“If not for me that stood behind Buhari, he wouldn’t have become the President. He tried the first time, he failed. The second time, he failed. The third, he failed,” Tinubu told the delegates.
“He even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again, I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas and he agreed.”
The former governor of Lagos State said since Buhari became President, he has not benefited anything from him.
“Since he became the President, I have never gotten ministerial slots,” he said.
“I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him. It is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn.”
Tinubu also revealed how he “surrendered” the vice-presidential ticket to Yemi Osinbajo, when concerns were raised over a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the APC.
“Buhari asked me to be his running mate, but Saraki campaigned against a Muslim-Muslim ticket. He felt it would affect his ambition to be senate president. The senate president could not be a Muslim as well. They rose against it. I said ‘I have someone that’s a Christian and I will nominate him. This party must not scatter’. And I nominated him (Osinbajo). That’s the truth,” Tinubu said in Yoruba.
“They asked me to bring three names. Yemi Cardoso was number one. Wale Edun was number two, and Yemi Osinbajo was number three. I decided to drop just one name since I was surrendering my right. Buhari agreed to this and I dropped Yemi Osinbajo’s name.
“You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this. It’s my time now.
-Governor Dao Abiodun Too….
Buhari was not the only politician at the receiving end of Tinubu’s sharp tongue on Thursday as Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun state got some lashes too.
At a meeting with delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abeokuta, the former Lagos state governor said the party did not want to give the governorship ticket to Abiodun in the build-up to the 2019 polls.
Speaking on the circumstances surrounding the APC crisis at the time, Tinubu claimed he did much to ensure the success of Abiodun at the polls.
“That one (referring to Abiodun) that is sitting down here, could he have become governor without me? We were all in the stadium where they tore all the posters. Even the candidacy of the party, they didn’t want to give it to him,” he said in Yoruba.
“It’s been over 25 years that I have been serving them. This one sitting at my back, Dapo, could he have become a governor if not for me?
“If he wants to hear, his life will be long. If he wants to meet God in his position, he would admit that he wouldn’t have become governor if not for God and I.”
Leave a Reply