Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday, January 5, 2023, slammed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for his endorsement of Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, in the February 25 presidential poll.
Tinubu spoke at a rally held at the University of Benin Sports Complex in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, said Obasanjo is “jealous” of his achievements, adding that the “the blind” cannot lead “the blind”. He also said the former President’s endorsement of Obi won’t work or make any difference in the outcome of the election in the next couple of weeks.
Tinubu recalled that as Lagos governor from 1999 to 2007, whilst Obasanjo was President, he “punished” him and millions of residents of Lagos by allegedly withholding local government funds that belonged to the nation’s commercial nerve centre.
Tinubu also accused Obasanjo and his then Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, who is now the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of corruption.
Tinubu alleged that both Obasanjo and Atiku seized the Federal Government’s allocation to Lagos and used “Nigeria’s funds” to buy cars for their girlfriends through shady privatisation scheme.
“Can that man recommend a leader for you in Nigeria? Is that not sending an agent to pick your pocket?” Tinubu asked thousands of APC supporters at the rally.
“A blind leading the blind. I am sorry I am not insulting visually impaired people. But it won’t work, they will end up in the ditch. If I talk about Obasanjo and Obi…one who doesn’t know the way cannot show the way,” the APC candidate said.
Despite the many patronising visits of presidential candidates to his Abeokuta home, 85-year-old Obasanjo on January 1, 2023, shunned 17 candidates and endorsed Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, saying he has an edge over other contestants.
Obi’s endorsement by the former Nigerian military head of state between February 1976 and October 1979 has since riled the candidates of the APC, the PDP, amongst others.
Similarly, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Edwin Clark on Tuesday endorsed Obi as his preferred candidate. Obi was also previously endorsed by leader of pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo.
Obi, who has been put ahead of other candidates in many pre-election polls of late, is popularly amongst youths who are thirsty of genuine national change but only time will tell the winner of the February 25 election.
According to Section 34 of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections, a presidential candidate can only be announced as the winner if he or she “has the majority of votes cast at the election; and has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.
Tinubu Attacks Obasanjo’s Credibility Because He Didn’t Win Former President’s Endorsement
Bola Tinubu, the presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, has reacted to the endorsement of his Labour Party LP rival, Peter Obi by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as “worthless”.
Tinubu in a preliminary response to the development however conceded that it was within the democratic rights of the former president to endorse anyone.
The APC standard bearer recalled how the former president’s adopted candidates had lost elections in the past, declaring that not even in Obasanjo’s home state, Ogun, can anyone rely on his endorsement to be governor or councillor.
Obasanjo had in a new year message to Nigerians youths carpeted Tinubu and his own former deputy, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying only Obi holds a promise for the country.
“Let me say straight away that ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now. They cannot form the new pedestal to reinvent and to invest in a new Nigeria based on an All-Nigeria Government for the liberation and restoration of Nigeria. Such a government must have representation from all sectors of our national life public, private, civil society, professional, labour, employers, and the diaspora. The solution should be in we’ and ‘us’ and not in ‘me’ and ‘I”, the former president had declared.
According to a statement on Sunday, January 1, 2023, issued by the Director, Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu said he was responding to the development after a series of calls by journalists seeking his reaction.
The council noted that the former president has a history of failed endorsements, and expressed sympathy for Mr Obi who it said is on his way to joining the lost of losers endorsed by Obasanjo in the past.
Part of the statement reads; “We read with amusement the endorsement of Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential Candidate by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his New Year message on Sunday.
“Following calls by journalists from various media houses who asked for our reaction we decided to make this preliminary statement, though we didn’t consider the so-called endorsement to be of any value.
“We respect the democratic right of former President Obasanjo to support and endorse any candidate of his choice in any election”, the council noted.
The Tinubu campaign council added that except that the former president formally made his decision known in his new year message, “any discerning political watcher in Nigeria knows that Chief Obasanjo’s preference for Peter Obi is expected”.
It noted that Obasanjo had earlier stated his position at various public events, the last being at the 70th birthday anniversary of Chief John Nwodo, a former President of Ohaneze Ndigbo in Enugu.
Noting that Obasanjo is not a democrat who anyone should be proud to be associated with, the Tinubu campaign said it would not lose any sleep over the development.
“We make bold to say that our party and candidate, Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not lose sleep over Obasanjo’s move, as Obasanjo is notorious for always opposing progressive political forces, as he did against MKO Abiola in 1993.
“The endorsement is actually worthless because the former President does not possess any political goodwill or leverage anywhere in Nigeria to make anyone win a Councillorship election let alone win a Presidential election. He is a political paperweight.
“He is also not a democrat anyone should be proud to be associated with.
Source: ChannelsTV
