The campaign organisation for Bola Tinubu, former Lagos
governor seeking the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), says the recent remarks by Tinubu in Ogun was not meant to disrespect
President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tinubu, while addressing APC delegates in Ogun state on
Thursday, had said without him, Buhari wouldn’t have won the presidential
election in 2015.
“If not for me that led the battlefront, Buhari wouldn’t
have won. He contested first, second and third time, but lost. He even said on
television that he won’t contest again,” Tinubu had said.
“But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him ‘you would
contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matter of the Yoruba’. Since he
has been elected, I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get a contract.
This time, it’s Yoruba turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my turn.”
The comment has generated varied reactions from Nigerians on
the circumstances surrounding the 2015 elections.
Speaking on the development in a statement issued on Friday
by Bayo Onanuga, its spokesman, the organisation said the former Lagos governor
was only trying to convince the delegates on why he is the best aspirant.
“The attention of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential
Campaign Organisation has been drawn to the erroneous, misleading and
mischievous interpretation of his address in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State on
Thursday,” the statement reads.
“It is on record that
the leading presidential aspirant in the forthcoming primaries of the All
Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, addressed the national
delegates of the party in Ogun State , with Governor Mr. Dapo Abiodun in
attendance.
“In his effort to convince the party delegates to vote for
him at the primaries, he went down memory lane to provide specific instances
when he brought his political clout and strategic skills to assist individuals,
groups and tendencies in the party to gain political power.
“These factual references are already in the public realm.
They have been reported and analysed in the media in the last eight years. They
are therefore, matters of public knowledge.
“While we recognise that recent unexpected interventions in
the timetable and the heat generated by the proximity of the event might have
led to some anxiety, this campaign organisation believes that the main thrust
of Asiwaju’s presentation, was that his huge contributions to the formation and
electoral success of the All Progressives Congress should count in his favour
as a true party man who desires to be the flagbearer.
“There is also no
doubt that the fresh conditions proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari for the
consideration of a presidential candidate of the party made it necessary for
Asiwaju to labour to convince the delegates that he fits the bill.
“The campaign was surprised at the way the opposition and
Tinubu’s traducers had turned his statement to give an interpretation Tinubu
did not mean and did not say.
“At no time did Tinubu play any ethnic card or denigrate any
ethnic group. That is surely out of his character, as Engineer David Babachir
Lawal, attested in his viral WhatsApp statement.
“Tinubu’s speech in Abeokuta did not demonstrate any
disrespect to President Buhari, for whom he has a very high regard, and whose
re-election campaign he chaired in 2019.”
The former governor, who spoke in Yoruba on Thursday, had
also said without him Dapo Abiodun would have never won the Ogun governorship
election in 2019.
But the campaign organisation accused the “opposition” of
“twisting” the presidential hopeful’s comments, adding that Tinubu was
misrepresented.
“Since the video of
the speech he delivered in Yoruba hit the social media, varied interpretations
have been given to the speech, which in the main was about Governor Abiodun,
who in the true tradition of Yoruba culture bowed to his leader after Tinubu’s
short speech,” the statement reads.
“The Tinubu campaign is not surprised why the opposition in
the APC have decided to turn and twist the statement. The former Lagos
governor, a great party man, remains the man to beat at the party’s convention
on Monday.
“We are least
surprised that he is the target of well-calculated and most unkind virulent
attacks.
“The campaign organisation hereby appeals to the media to
avoid over- sensationalising issues of facts and play its constitutional role
of informing the electorate to make informed choices at the presidential
primaries.”
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