Former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has dispelled rumours making the rounds that he has dumped the presidential aspiration of former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari for that of the House of Representatives’ Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal. He dismissed such speculation as a lie by some ‘self-serving’ people.
Reacting through the twitter handle of his Special Adviser on Media, Sunday Dare, Tinubu held that at no point did he dump Buhari for anyone, stressing that all the aspirants have a level playing field because it is the resolve of the APC to engender transparent democracy.
The tweet reads, “Nobody has been dumped or anybody backed in APC. What is playing out is the kind of democracy we all prayed for. Tinubu has not dumped Buhari.”
Tweeting further, Dare disclosed that “Tinubu has not dumped anyone. The stories being pushed in the media that he has switched support is simply not true. It is self serving.”
The aspirant to fly the main opposition party’s flag will be decided in the course of its national convention rescheduled to take place on Wednesday, 10 December 2014. Tinubu, acclaimed in some quarters to be the strongman of South west politics, is widely courted as a result of the block votes he is expected to bring in during the convention as well as the main elections.
At the last count, aspirants jostling for the party’s presidential ticket include: Buhari, former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso and founder Leadership Newspapers, Sam Nda Isaiah. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal is said to have been drafted into the race by his associates who were reported to have bought the nomination forms for him.
There have been wide-spread media reports that Tinubu, earlier believed to be rooting for the candidacy of Buhari, has ditched the former military ruler for Tambuwal as a result of the youthfulness of the later and because he is seen as not coming into the presidential race with any political luggage. The former governor’s purported switch was also linked to the inability of the northern presidential aspirants to come up with a consensus candidate.
Comments