Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election, has said he “cannot forget” the night the Northern bloc in the party agreed that power must shift to the Southwest.
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that after months of intense horse-trading among various power blocs within the ruling APC, Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, realised his lifetime ambition and emerged the winner of the presidential primary of the party in June.
At the presidential primary concluded in Abuja, Tinubu, who polled 1,271 votes, defeated 13 others in the race. His closest opponent was the former minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who scored 316 votes.
Taking a flashback to the intrigues of that contest, Tinubu explained to Pa Reuben Fasoranti, a key stakeholder in the Afenifere Yoruba group, whom he visited recently in Akure, Ondo State that the battle was tough.
“During the APC primary election, that week, I didn’t sleep for one hour. At the end of the day, the North proved to me that Nigeria can survive its unity. Because before then, there were so many of them who wanted President Muhammadu Buhari to be confused. They wanted him to anoint somebody else. He said no.
“Even on the night of the primary, some of them are still putting him on the pressure cooker. He said no. Let this thing go on democratically.
“He went further to say anyone of you that messes up will see the red part of his own eye.
“Some of the Northern governors came together when the strategy became complex. Some wanted to keep the power, some wanted to let go.
“They resolved eventually that it has to go to South. I can’t forget the night they passed that resolution. That they will work with the South, and particularly Southwest so that this baton will be handed over to the Southwest.
“I threw off the glove when I was in doubt at a stage. We had to live on gossip and speculation. This one says this, that one says that, and all of that. I took off the glove and challenged the establishment, “egbe kini yi wa, emilokan”. I didn’t know it will turn out to be a prayer point.
“Some of them got up to say, ‘you are disqualified’. Buhari says ‘for what? He says the truth’. I even cry [sic] on television. He confessed to them.”
It’s a really your turn to rule, because you Asíwájú has worked tirelessly for many leaders and people of this great nation. He made many people what they are in the political circle today. It’s really a pay back time.
Is the presidency post an entitlement for a job welcome to be ready to serve, abeg we think this Wella..
or is it hereditary?
All this and that, that you are telling us can not make you win. Because APC have failed Nigeria. So is PDP turn & is ATIKU
But he truly worked for his Political Party and deserved their compensation. It’s now left for the majority of Nigerians to choose who they want at the presidential election in February 2023.