The Bola Tinubu campaign organisation said on Friday the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader’s remark in Ogun State was not aimed at spiting President Muhammadu Buhari, IgbereTV reports
Tinubu had on Thursday said Buhari would not have emerged the country’s president in 2015 without his support.
The APC chieftain, who addressed the party’s delegates in Ogun State at a meeting held in Abeokuta, added that Buhari had given hope in the presidency after suffering successive defeats in 2003, 2007 and 2011.
Tinubu said: “If not for me that led the war front, Buhari wouldn’t have emerged. He contested first, second and third times, but lost. He even said on television that he won’t contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him you will contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matters of the Yorubas. Since he has emerged I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get any contract.
“This time, it’s Yoruba turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my tenure.”
The remark has generated backlash in Nigeria with many accusing the former Lagos State governor of courting the President’s favour in return for his roles in the 2015 election success.
The Director-General of the campaign organisation, Bayo Onanuga, who reacted to the development in a statement, said Tinubu was only trying to explain to the delegates why he was the best fit for the APC presidential ticket.
The statement read: “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.
“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 Engr. 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.
