…says he can’t work against Buhari on NASS leadership
…accuses Saraki, Dogara of hijacking budget process
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, declared that he was not obsessed with power or political office, but committed to supporting President Muhammadu Buhari to achieve his vision of a flourishing economy and a prosperous people.
The former governor of Lagos State, in a statement titled, “Tinubu focusing on the issues of today:
Tomorrow is the master of itself,” was reacting to speculations that he was meddling in APC’s nomination process to National Assembly leadership positions because of his 2023 presidential ambition.
Insisting that he had no ulterior motive in backing APC and Buhari’s position on the leadership of the 9th National Assembly, Tinubu said that all he has done was to support the party and the President’s position and that he would have committed a terrible blunder by navigating against Buhari’s position.
He categorically stated that there was no action a person could take that constitutes a political guarantee as to what may come four years from now, adding that the belief that having allies in the National Assembly leadership positions will greatly enhance someone’s presidential ambition is a spurious claim.
While noting that National Assembly positions are important to the fulfillment of the President’s agenda, he lamented that a painful lesson was learnt in this respect in the last four years.
Tinubu added that those who cast aspersions at him are in reality bucking against the stated position of President Buhari.
He maintained that the attempt to caricature him as if his words and actions are all aimed at grabbing power will fail because the portrait distorts the plain truth.
Tinubu told his traducers that he has not run for elected office since 2003 and that he last held office in 2007.
He also pointed out that he has neither vied to become chairman of the APC nor has he tried to insinuate himself into any major government office.
His words: “If you were asked to name another political figure who has exercised such forbearance, you would be hard pressed to identify another person with a comparable record when it comes to restraint in seeking office. Where others, upon leaving one office, tend to set their eyes immediately upon another, Asiwaju, uniquely in Nigerian politics, has foregone his personal ambitions as his political ideas and policies have flourished in the hands of his allies and mentees.
“This track record does not evince a man obsessed with power and office. While the intriguemongers seek to depict Asiwaju as a man hungering for position, his deeds speak of something else. These peddlers of tales do not know the measure of the man nor can they understand what motivates him. Thus, they project their own petty ambitions and designs on to him. The rumours reveal more about the mongers than they say about Asiwaju.
“They merely reveal what these people would do if they were Asiwaju. But they are not him and thankfully he is not motivated by the same selfish designs that fuel such people. Perhaps because these people have nothing to contribute regarding statecraft or providing actual solutions to actual problems, their minds remain forever mired in political machinations.
“What afflicts them does not affect Asiwaju. Since he last held public office, Asiwaju has, with unprecedented success, dedicated himself toward building a political party that would furnish a progressive alternative to the regressive policies of the PDP. Joining forces with President Buhari and others who shared his progressive ideology, he helped form the APC. Since the inception of the APC, Asiwaju’s focus has been to assist President Buhari develop, refine and implement a progressive agenda that would give every Nigerian a fair chance to prosper and provide for his loved ones.
“Asiwaju’s mind, heart and efforts are focused on supporting the President in achieving their shared vision of a flourishing economy and a prosperous people. He is committed to doing what he can to help President Buhari surmount the challenges in order to achieve the economic reform the nation sorely needs. Given that the imperatives of today are sufficiently daunting in and of themselves, Asiwaju is neither inclined, nor sufficiently naïve, to take his eye off the present in the futile attempt to peer through the thick fog that is the future.”
He, therefore, urged those speculating over his 2023 ambition to court greater discipline and wisdom.
The statement added that: “Nigeria has barely emerged from President Buhari and the APC’s resounding victory in the last election. The President, with the support of an APC majority in both chambers of our National Assembly, is now preparing to lead the nation forward for the next four years. Instead of covering the President’s exciting Next Level agenda and what it promises in terms of economic and social growth and development, these people want to skip ahead to the next election as if they can cast aside the next four years.
“The peddlers of these rumours have arrogated to themselves the preternatural ability to read Asiwaju’s mind more than he himself can know it.
They also seem to have acquired the unique gift of bending time so that 2023 appears before we even reach the midway point of 2019. If these people would only enlist their uncanny talents in the service of the nation instead of in the service of political intrigue and gossip mongering, our country would be much the better.”
On his claim of Saraki and Dogara hijacking the budget process, Tinubu said: “In 2015, Senator Saraki finagled his way into the Senate presidency. But his actions as Senate president showed a man devoid of compassion for the average Nigerian. All he cared for was power and position.
Soon he will be deprived of both. House Speaker Dogara has fared only slightly better.
“The Senate leadership, and to a lesser degree the House leadership, stymied APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious, reactionary and self-interested legislation on the nation.
“Just look at the way Saraki, Dogara and their ilk hijacked the budget process these past four years. National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them. Even worse, they cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefitted the average person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the National Assembly.
“If we are truly committed to optimal governance, then we also must be equally committed to ensuring that the National Assembly leadership be competent and experienced as well as imbued with a progressive mindset and a desire to work in close cooperation with executive. This is all Asiwaju has hoped to achieve.
There are no ulterior motives. Everything he has done is in concert with and in furtherance of the wishes of President Buhari and the party.”
He called on those who care about Nigeria to rally around the president to give him all possible support in driving to reality his economic policies and objectives, insisting that it is through such way the nation can make progress.
“Elections are over. Now is the time for governance to take primacy. Those who have taken to intrigue about 2023 reveal themselves to be lacking in essential concern for the people and the substantive issues that confront us. Our challenges are steep and multiple. Resolving them will occupy all of our time and energy. We do not have the luxury to embark on fantasies about the future. Let the future stay where it is for now. In due time, it shall come and shall decide the shape it is to take regardless of the plans we mortals hold for it.”
