Former Lagos State Governor and presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said 2023 presidency belongs to the Yoruba race and it’s definitely his tenure.
Tinubu stated this at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while addressing the APC delegates ahead of the party’s primaries.
The APC National Leader claimed that he led political struggle that produced President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and also nominated Prof Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Kano counterpart, Umar Ganduje, and former Borno State Governor, Kasim Shettima, accompanied Tinubu to the state.
According to Tinubu, Buhari had offered him a running mate ticket, but some blocs rose against him, fanning ember of Muslim-Muslim ticket.
He further stated that when he was asked to submit three names for running mate, he penciled down Yemi Kadoso, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbajo but later settled for Osinbajo as running mate.
“You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this,” Tinubu who addressed the delegates in Yoruba said.
Speaking on how he helped Buhari become president in 2015, he said “If not me that led the war front, Buhari wouldn’t have emerged. He contested first, second and third times, but lost. He even said on television that he won’t contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him you would contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matters of the Yorubas. Since he has emerged I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get contract.
“This time, it’s Yoruba turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my tenure.”
The political warrior also said without God and him, the Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun would not have won the 2019 election.
“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.”
In his remarks, Abiodun who had earlier declared his support for Osinbajo’s candidature, refused to endorse Tinubu.
Abiodun, however, said that delegates from the state would do “the right thing” at the convention.