The President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki’s
statement on the 2023 presidential ambition of the National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress attracted diverse reactions on Tuesday.
Saraki had on Monday said Tinubu was supporting
President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election with the hope of succeeding the
President in 2023.
The Senate president also said Tinubu told him he
would support Buhari even if he was on a stretcher.
Saraki spoke in reaction to a statement on Sunday by
Tinubu, alleging that the Senate president dumped the APC because of his
presidential ambition and selfish quest for power.
The National Publicity Secretary of the All
Progressives Congress, Mr Yekini Nabena, in an interview with one of our
correspondents, indicated that it was premature to talk about 2023 presidency,
adding that Tinubu’s presidential ambition had not been communicated to the
party.
When asked to comment on Saraki’s statement, Nabena
said, “This (Tinubu’s ambition) has not been communicated to the party, so I
cannot comment on it. Besides, why should anybody be talking about 2023 when we
are in 2018? Is anybody God?”
Tinubu, Saraki’s conflict about personal interests –
Afenifere
Commenting on the exchange of words between Saraki and
Tinubu, the Yoruba socio-cultural association, Afenifere, expressed dismay over
what it identified as the elevation of personal interests and ambitions over
national good and development by politicians in the country.
It noted that the verbal exchanges between the APC
leader, Bola Tinubu, and Senate President Bukola Saraki were all about their
personal interests.
Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, expressed
disappointment that the two men were more interested in personal ambitions than
in national good and progress.
“You cannot see anything in these exchanges that talk
about national good or higher values. The only thing that was substantial was
when Saraki said he was against Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2014. If that was true,
it would have been unthinkable in a Nigeria so badly divided as it is today.
Clearly, the arguments were about personal interests and ambitions,” Afenifere
noted.
It’s not a crime to be ambitious – Junaid Mohammed
But a Kano State delegate to the 2014 National
Conference, Dr Junaid Mohammed, said there was nothing wrong with Tinubu or
anybody for that matter being ambitious.
He stated he would not quarrel with
politically-ambitious people so long as the process of actualising their
ambition would not lead to collateral damage that could ruin the country.
Mohammed made his view known in a telephone interview
with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday.
The medical doctor-turned politician said, “Unlike
Bukola Saraki, I do not blame anybody for being ambitious as long as the
process of achieving the ambition doesn’t create so must collateral damage that
will be harmful to the country. I don’t
have any problem with it.
Speaking about Tinubu’s statement which led to Saraki’s
response, Mohammed said, “I don’t know if the information he has as regards
either Buhari himself, Tambuwal or Bukola Saraki for that matter is necessarily
100 per cent reliable.
“Let me state for the records, Tinubu is my friend and
I would not take issue with people I consider my friends publicly.
“Having said so, I must admit that some of his
criticisms in defence of Buhari, the APC and even Adams Oshiomhole, who was
until recently a persona non grata to him, is something I find rather amusing
and somewhat a little surprising.
“And I don’t know whatever calculations he might have
had in his defence right or wrong of Buhari contrary to what he tells people in
private; no matter how he goes about his defence of Buhari and people like Oshiomhole and others, I don’t think
that will pay him off eventually in his
own political ambition.”
Tinubu shouldn’t think North will support him in 2023
– Adebanjo
But a chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, says
the APC leader must be naive to think that the North will allow him to succeed
Buhari in 2023.
The 90-year-old statesman also urged the people of the
South-West not to allow themselves to be fooled by Tinubu a second time.
Speaking with one of our correspondents on the
telephone on Tuesday, Adebanjo said, “Tinubu is daydreaming if he thinks the
North will ever support his presidential ambition. We have our principles.
“We are not supporting Buhari under any circumstance
and Tinubu cannot lead Yoruba land because all he has done is to lead us
astray. All he has done for us is to give some of our people who are close to
him appointments.
“Nothing tangible has been done for Yoruba land. He
gave his stooges appointments, nothing more, nothing less. If he has done more
than that, let him say it.”
Adebanjo said the only demand the Yoruba had made was
restructuring which the APC had been dishonest about.
The Afenifere chieftain said one of the reasons
Afenifere supported Buhari in 2007 was because of his promise to restructure
the country to allow for true federalism.
He said instead of keeping its promise, the APC
resorted to setting up a committee on restructuring to deceive gullible
Nigerians and the likes of Tinubu participated in the grand scheme of
deception.
Adebanjo added, “How can they be telling us about
restructuring committee, when from the outset, they were supposed to have
started restructuring. Who do they think they are fooling? If Tinubu is
daydreaming, he shouldn’t think others are daydreaming like him.”
“Buhari is a stranger to us in Yoruba land. The only
Yoruba supporting him are those benefitting from this corrupt regime.”
Attempts to get a reaction from Tinubu’s Media
Adviser, Mr Tunde Rahman, to Saraki and Adebanjo’s statements were
unsuccessful. Calls to his mobile telephone number were neither picked nor
returned.
Also in an SMS sent to him, Rahman was asked to
comment on Saraki’s statement that Tinubu’s support for Buhari was predicated
on his 2023 ambition.
In the SMS, he was also asked to react to Ad banjo’s
comments that Tinubu was naïve to think the north would support his 2023
ambition. His response was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report at7.25pm. The
text message was sent at 5.25 pm.
Punch report
Tinubu vs Saraki: Talk about 2023 presidency premature, says APC
Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, August 22, 2018
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