BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Project Beyond 2023, a presidential campaign organisation for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, one of the presidential aspirants of the ruling All Progressives Congress has advised party leadership against allowing former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the party’s presidential primary election.
Tinubu’s campaign organisation said Jonathan’s participation in the race for the party’s presidential ticket would create more problems for it and wondered how the party would campaign for Jonathan despite deriding him and exposing the alleged corruption in his administration.
Speaking on a radio programme monitored by our correspondent, Comrade Adeboye Adebayo, the National Director, Media and Publicity of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Project Beyond 2023, declared that the former governor of Lagos State would not give any delegates money to vote for him adding that monetising politics was worrisome for Tinubu.
He said Tinubu would defeat the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amechi whom he said lacked political structure, network and contributions to win the primary.
Adebayo advised the party against considering consensus mode for the primary and described it as undemocratic. Notwithstanding, he boasted that Tinubu would emerge the APC candidate even if consensus was adopted at the primary which had been shifted till June 6 and 7.
While insisting that Tinubu remained the contender to beat, Adebayo said, “Among the 28 people that have submitted their forms, who is stronger than Asiwaju? Who has paid dues in the party and within Nigeria’s democratic structure than Asiwaju? Who has done so much for the party than Asiwaju? Who has the better structure to win the general elections than Asiwaju? Who has the network and antecedents? Who has done it before than Asiwaju? And I can assure you that as we speak, Asiwaju is still the man to beat in the APC primaries.
“Other aspirants like the former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, let’s look at it morally, what has the former Minister of Transport contributed to the party more than Asiwaju? And as we speak, his (Amaechi) home base is being run and controlled by PDP and you know charity begins at home. So, somebody that has no base at home, in his geopolitical zone, the South-South, how many APC states do we have there? The former Minister is not capable to clinch that ticket because of the lacks the structure in his home base.
“Talking about the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, he is capable in terms of qualification to become the president, I am also capable, but in terms of structure, antecedents, in terms of contributions to the party, which are the parameters that the party will use in screening, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the best man and the current Vice President doesn’t have the capacity. He didn’t contribute to the party politics than Asiwaju and this is one of the parameters that would be used. There is a space in the nomination form for screening that aspirants should state their contributions to the party. I have not seen anyone among these people that can write that they have done better in terms of party contributions than Bola Ahmed Tinubu. So, for us, we are not bothered or deterred and we are not wary. We are sure of victory at the primary,” he declared.
“Who is telling you that consensus won’t favour Asiwaju? It’s because the evil in consensus is that the party will consider who can win the election for them seamlessly, the party will consider who has the connection and network even beyond party lines to get support for the party to win the election. So, if consensus is the thing, Asiwaju is still the right man for the job. But for us, we believe so much in democratic principles and we believe that once there is a dissenting voice, there should be a way of allowing members to go to the poll.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is not disposed to any action or activity that will rubbish our party at the primary election. This is a critical time for our party and all eyes on us. We must not miss this chance. We must not miss this opportunity and we must not disappoint Nigerians. Nigerians are looking up to us and the only person they know is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to change the fortunes of the country through the APC and we are very sure that Buhari himself will not do anything that will be inimical to the progress and development of the party. Everywhere Osinbajo has visited across the country, he had seen and read it in the delegates and party stakeholders that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the man to beat.”
On the rumoured attempts to adopt Jonathan as the party’s flagbearer, Adebayo said, “It’s a rumour that Jonathan will be used as a consensus candidate of the APC and it will remain a rumour. I don’t know when Jonathan became our party member and if he joins the party today, the party has the right to give him a waiver to contest. But the moral burden is on the party to know whether the party people, supporters and loyalists are in line with that because you can’t do things in isolation.”
