Buhari never worked against Tinubu, Okechukwu counters Ojudu
By Jeffrey Agbo
A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has refuted claims that former President Muhammadu Buhari opposed Bola Tinubu’s presidential bid during the lead-up to the 2023 elections.
In a statement released on Thursday in Abuja, Okechukwu dismissed Senator Babafemi Ojudu’s assertion that Buhari did not support Tinubu and was instead outmaneuvered by him.
Describing Ojudu’s claims as misinformation, Okechukwu, an avowed supporter of Buhari, insisted the narrative was far from accurate.
The Enugu-born politician, who served as the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) during Buhari’s administration, also provided a brief account of the political events surrounding the APC’s presidential primary and Tinubu’s emergence as the party’s candidate.
He said: “Yes, there was split opinion on whether to support Tinubu or not and Buhari sided with the camp led by then Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, quoting the Holy Quran that he could not ditch the man who stood by him through thick and thin. Rather let the delegates elect whoever is their choice at Eagle Square.”
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Reminded that Ojudu was then the political adviser and knew the inner workings of the Aso Villa more than him, Okechukwu maintained that there was division in Buhari’s kitchen cabinet immediately after a report by the Screening Committee headed by a former chairman of APC, John Oyegun, was submitted.
He recalled that the argument centred on whether some of the 23 presidential aspirants, including Tinubu, should be disqualified following a plethora of allegations. He added: “The only truth in Ojudu’s statement is that Buhari did not mobilise for any of the 23 aspirants not even for Senator Ahmed Lawan.
“Truly, if Buhari was in support of Lawan, he could have disclosed this to the APC Governors Forum, who prodded him serially to tell them who to vote for. It couldn’t have been the then-national Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to inform only the National Working Committee. The Aso Villa is the arena for such an important message.”
Okechukwu insisted that contrary to Ojudu’s claim that Buhari was outsmarted by President Tinubu during the APC presidential primaries, the notion was wrong, saying the claims were factually inaccurate.
