National leader and frontline presidential aspirant under the platform of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday admonished party delegates from Ogun State against turning the forthcoming national convention of the party to a “family affair” while voting to pick the flag bearer of the party for the 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu who addressed party delegates in Abeokuta, the state capital, emphatically warned the delegates not to sacrifice sound judgment at the altar of family affair when voting at the party’s convention, stressing that it was time for him to reap the benefits of his own labour and sacrifices at building a formidable political party.
Going down memory lane, Tinubu who also met with the national delegates of the party from Oyo State said that he never regretted sacrificing the opportunity offered him to become a vice to President Buhari during the build up to the year 2015 presidential election, but declined the offer to enable him stabilise APC, particularly towards ensuring that the newcomers from the PDP were fully accommodated within the APC.
He said, “It is now over 25 years that I have been worshipping these political sons and daughters. If Governor Dapo Abiodun seated here will be faithful to his God, I want to emphatically state that he couldn’t have become the governor without me. Even President Buhari wouldn’t have won that presidential election in 2015 after three unsuccessful attempts without my support.
“Since President Buhari assumed office, I have not accepted any ministerial or Ambassadorial position. But now, it is my turn. My protection for these political sons and daughters is enough. I don’t want to be part of a sad political history in Nigeria. I am here to solicit for your votes. May God not turn you from being delegates to delicate. Don’t make it a family affair.
“What I am telling you now is between me and God Almighty. Prior to the 2015 general elections, Buhari called me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked Chuba Okadigbo, a flamboyant politician, a Catholic, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him. The second time, he picked another Igbo, Umeh Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him, that if he goes to bring the Pope to run as his vice, Nigerians won’t vote for him, but you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my vice.
“He knew all the calculations then favoured us, that is why he wanted me as his vice, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, after we brought in people from the PDP, Saraki now saw those from the PDP will not get anything if Buhari; a Muslim becomes the President and me, also a Muslim becomes his vice, he won’t get the Senate President because the Senate President cannot also be a Muslim, that was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.
“And I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christian that I can nominate, so that the party will not break, that was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo).
“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbajo, but I told them if I submit three names, they will believe that I am not consistent and I insisted that I will present one candidate and I presented Yemi Osinbajo’s name.
“It is my time, I’m educated, I’m experienced. I have been serving you for a long time, bring me the presidency, it is my turn”.
Tinubu further recalled that when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was being flogged out of PDP by former President Okusegun Obasanjo, he ran to him for help and he left the ticket for him.
Noting that former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, had also come to him and he backed him, Tinubu said, “It has been over 25 years now that I have been serving them. This one sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he can be the Governor without me? We were together at the MKO Abiola Stadium, he was intimidated, they didn’t want to give him the party’s flag, I was the one that handed the flag to him. He knows that he cannot be the governor without the help of God and my support.
“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 time, he failed, he even wept on a 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.
“Since he became the president, I have never got ministerial slots, I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him. It is the turn of Yoruba to produce a President. It is my turn”.
