President Bola Tinubu has benefitted from the political fortunes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar which inadvertently saved the president’s political career.
Atiku declared that without his advancing support, Tinubu would have ended as the governor of Lagos State.
Atiku’s spokesperson, Pual Ibe made these revelations in a statement on Sunday to counter a remark by Vice President Kashim Shettima who said Atiku benefited from Tinubu’s goodwill when he was being “persecuted” in the PDP.
He dispelled a widely held view that Tinubu rescued Atiku during an encounter with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, leading to his contesting the Presidential Election on the platform of Action Congress (AC) in 2007.
Ibe, said “Truth be told, it was Tinubu that benefited immensely from Atiku’s goodwill,” adding that it was Atiku’s support, hinged on his pro-democracy instincts and rule of law that Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos would have been rough with a wide possibility of termination of his political career.
According to the statement, “For some time, and especially leading up to the 2023 election, there has been a deliberate attempt to distort the history of the politics of the early 4th Republic by ascribing the AC, the political platform that Atiku ran in 2007 as Tinubu’s party.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. Vice President Shettima, obviously carried away with the euphoria of the unveiling of his official residence as Vice President, repeated the same lie.
“Shettima needs to be reminded that Atiku did not run under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), but Action Congress (AC). AC came out of a coalition of ACD (Advance Congress of Democrats), formed by mainly PDM members and other associates and Tinubu’s faction of AD.”
Ibe said Tinubu could not have offered the platform to Atiku “as it was erroneously being suggested, as he (Atiku) was nominated by all the delegates from all the states.”
Hee the delegates to the primaries of the election who voted for the former Vice President as the party’s presidential candidate were Atiku Abubakar himself, Lawal Keita, Amb. Yahaya Kwande, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Alexis Anielo, Titi Ajanaku, former Governor Rasheed Ladoja, Chief Tom Ikimi, and Chief Dapo Sarumi.
Others were Chief Sergeant Awuse, Alh. Lawan, Dr. Chris Ngige, Prof Ango Abdulahi, Dr Farouk Abdul Azeez, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Ejiofor Onyia, and Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, among others.
Ibe revealed that Tinubu’s support came only from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Segun Osoba, Chief Adebayo Adefarati, and Chief Bisi Akande, among others in the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
