NewsNigeriaPolitics‘I Made Buhari President In 2015, It’s My Turn’, Tinubu Insists

Ardent presidential aspirant and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has recounted his role in the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as President in 2015, maintaining that it is his turn to be president in 2023.

Tinubu disclosed this at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while addressing the APC delegates ahead of the party’s primary on Thursday.

Speaking on Buhari’s victory in 2015, he said: “If not for me that stood behind Buhari, he wouldn’t have become the President. He tried the first time, he failed. The second time, he failed. The third, he failed.

“He even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in his home in Kastina and told him he will run again, and that I will stand by him and he will win, but I warned him not to joke with the matters of the Yorubas and he agreed.”

He added, “since the time we started with the Action Congress, Action Congress of Nigeria, and now the All Progressives Congress, I wanted to contest for president that time.

Tinubu also revealed how Buhari wanted to make him his running mate in 2015 which he (Tinubu) accepted but was forced to relinquish to Osinbajo, when concerns were raised over a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the APC.

“You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this. Buhari called me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked (Chuba) Okadigbo, flamboyant, Catholic, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him.

“The second time, he picked another Igbo, (Edwin) Ume-Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him. And he said that even if he went to bring the Pope to run as his deputy, Nigerians won’t vote for him, but he said, ‘You, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my deputy’.

“He knew all the calculations then favoured us. That is why he wanted me as his Vice but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, after we brought in people from the PDP, (Bukola) Saraki now saw that those from the PDP would not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim, becomes the president. And if I, also a Muslim, becomes his Vice, he won’t get the Senate president because the Senate president cannot also be a Muslim. That was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.

 “I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christian that I can nominate so that the party would not break. That was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him.

“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo, but I told them that if I submit three names, they would play a game—they might make it four and pick the fourth one. I gave them one name and that was Osinbajo.”

Speaking on why he is the best choice among other aspirants in the South-West, he said, “

The former governor of Lagos State, who lamented that since Buhari became President, he has not benefited anything from him, also spoke on why he is the best choice among other aspirants in the South-West.

“Since he became the President, I have never gotten ministerial slot. I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him,” he said.

“It is my time, I’m educated, I’m experienced. I have been serving people for a long time. It is the turn of the Yorubas, it is my turn. Bring me the presidency, it is my turn.”