Tinubu gets rough, says he Made Buhari, Osinbajo, Abiodun attain current positions

03 Jun Tinubu gets rough, says he Made Buhari, Osinbajo, Abiodun attain current positions

Former governor of Lagos State and presidential hopeful of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, claimed that without his support, President Muhammadu Buhari would not have won the presidential election in 2015.

Addressing a meeting with APC delegates in Ogun state, Tinubu said, “If not me that led the war from the front, Buhari would not have emerged as the president. 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 would contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matter of the Yoruba.

“Since he has emerged, 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.”

Tinubu also narrated 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.

“They asked me to bring three names. Yemi Cardoso was number one. Wale Edun was number two, 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.”

Tinubu, who narrated how Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun state emerged in 2019, said the party did not want to give the APC governorship ticket him.

According to Tinubu, there was crisis in the APC prior to the 2019 elections, over the refusal of Ibikunle Amosun, who was completing his second terms as governor of Ogun at the time, to support Abiodun as his successor.

Amosun, who had supported another aspirant, was later suspended by the party.

Speaking on the circumstances surrounding the issue at the time, Tinubu said 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.

“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”, Tinubu said.

He appealed to the 60 delegates in Ogun to support him during the APC primary election