Former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu has recalled the role he played in the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s President in 2015, maintaining that the Katsina-born military officer would have lost the election to then ruling PDP if not for his efforts.
According to Tinubu, national leader of the ruling APC and a frontline presidential aspirant, the past three presidential elections Buhari was involved in were unsuccessful till he (Tinubu) gave him a push in 2015.
Speaking on Thursday while addressing party delegates at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, Ogun State, he said “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, he failed.”
He added, “He even wept on 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.”
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Asiwaju as he is popularly further highlighted that since Buhari became President, he has not benefited anything from him.
“Since he became the President, I have never gotten ministerial slots,” he said. “I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him. It is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn.”
He reiterated his mentorship role in the political careers of several Nigerian leaders including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
“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 if me, also a Muslim becomes his vice, he won’t get the Senate President and the Senate President cannot also be a Muslim. That was how they started the campaign of calumny against me,” Tinubu explained.
“I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christan 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
“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo.”
Tinubu who revealed that being the country’s President has been his long time dream since he was in the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN also told the delegates about his role in the election of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, saying with his political experience in the last 25 years, he deserves to be given the chance to lead Nigeria.
“Dapo that’s sitting down here, could he have become Governor without me? We were at the stadium, they tore all his posters. Even the party flag, they didn’t want to hand over it to him. I was the one who brought it.
“If he wants to meet God at the right place, he must know that without God and me, he would not have become Governor.”
