Shehu Sani says Tinubu’s campaign is attempting to retract, panel beat or modify the speech when everything he said was plain, direct and clearly understood.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The campaign organisation of Bola Ahmed Tinubu has refuted claim that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant humiliated President Muhammadu Buhari during his outbursts in Abeokuta on Thursday.
Tinubu said that he made Buhari president in 2015 and that in 2023, it is his turn to rule the country.
He said: “He (Buhari) tried the first time and failed. He tried a second time and failed. He tried the third time and failed. He even cried on television that he will never run for president again. I went to meet him and told him this is not a crying matter: ‘we will support you and you will be president’.”
But a statement by the media director of Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, said the speech was not humiliating to the person of Buhari and blamed the opposition for giving that slant.
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Onanuga said: “The attention of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation has been drawn to the erroneous, misleading and mischievous interpretation of his address in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State on Thursday.
“It is on record that the leading presidential aspirant in the forthcoming primaries of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, addressed the national delegates of the party in Ogun State, with Governor Dapo Abiodun in attendance.
“In his effort to convince the party delegates to vote for him at the primaries, he went down memory lane to provide specific instances when he brought his political clout and strategic skills to assist individuals, groups and tendencies in the party to gain political power.
“These factual references are already in the public realm. They have been reported and analysed in the media in the last eight years. They are, therefore, matters of public knowledge.
“While we recognise that recent unexpected interventions in the timetable and the heat generated by the proximity of the event might have led to some anxiety, this campaign organisation believes that the main thrust of Asiwaju’s presentation was that his huge contributions to the formation and electoral success of the All Progressives Congress should count in his favour as a true party man who desires to be the flag bearer.
“There is also no doubt that the fresh conditions proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari for the consideration of a presidential candidate of the party made it necessary for Asiwaju to labour to convince the delegates that he fits the bill.
“The campaign was surprised at the way the opposition and Tinubu’s traducers had turned his statement to give an interpretation Tinubu did not mean and did not say.
“At no time did Tinubu play any ethnic card or denigrate any ethnic group. That is surely out of his character, as Engineer David Babachir Lawal, attested in his viral WhatsApp statement.
“Tinubu’s speech in Abeokuta did not demonstrate any disrespect to President Buhari, for whom he has very high regard, and whose re-election campaign he chaired in 2019.
‘Since the video of the speech he delivered in Yoruba hit the social media, varied interpretations have been given to the speech, which in the main was about Governor Abiodun, who in the true tradition of Yoruba culture bowed to his leader after Tinubu’s short speech.
“The Tinubu campaign is not surprised why the opposition in the APC has decided to turn and twist the statement.
“The former Lagos governor, a great party man remains the man to beat at the party’s convention on Monday.
“We are least surprised that he is the target of well-calculated and most unkind virulent attacks
“The campaign organisation hereby appeals to the media to avoid over-sensationalising issues of facts and play its constitutional role of informing the electorate to make informed choices at the presidential primaries.”
But for a former lawmaker that represented Kaduna Central in the Senate, Shehu Sani, what the media campaign is attempting to do is retracting the comment of their principal. He said: “What is Jagaban’s media team trying to retract, panel beat or modify when everything he said was plain, direct and clearly understood?”
