Former Lagos governor and national leader of the
All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu
has reacted to a newspaper report which claimed
that the APC chieftain was being put under
security watch by President Muhammadu Buhari
for working against the party and the President’s
interest.
The report that quoted a presidency source had
alleged that Tinubu had conspired with Saraki to
rubbish the list of ministerial nominees sent to the
Senate.
Reacting, however, the APC national leader said
he was committed to the vision of the APC,
terming the report in a national daily as “a sad
excursion from journalism into the realm of gothic
tale and political slander.”
In a statement signed by Sunday Dare,
Chief of Staff to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu/Special
Adviser Media, Tinubu said the story was
published just to create confusion and to kill the
ruling APC.
He said, “Those who midwifed this garish tale give
birth not to truth but to lies intended to kill APC
unity and to retard the Buhari administration’s
strategic reform initiatives, as earlier outlined by
our party manifesto.”
The statement said Tinubu would not push aside a
lifetime’s labor because of an alleged “slight and
would equally not join with Senator Saraki in
“stymying this government which may just be the
nation’s last best chance to salvage itself.”
Full statement below:
The SUN Newspaper has taken a sad excursion
from journalism into the realm of gothic tales and
political slander. That sheet has turned itself into
a harbor of perjury and malice in telling tales by
moonlight. In venturing to publish the recent story
that Asiwaju Tinubu has conspired with Senator
Saraki to thwart the Buhari administration, the
SUN Newspaper has descended to the lowest and
darkest rungs of journalism ethics. The stench of
the piece and motives behind it are too noxious to
ignore.
Those who midwifed this garish tale give birth not
to truth but to lies intended to kill APC unity and
to retard the Buhari administration’s strategic
reform initiatives, as earlier outlined by our party
manifesto. Given the potential for change that
stands before us, we are now beginning to see
the true nature of many people. There are those
who truly want positive change so that we can
break from the ways of a stolid past. Then there
are those who speak of change with their mouths
but never believe in it in their hearts. They came
along with us for the ride or because no other
political option availed itself at the operative time.
Now given the chance to redeem themselves from
their past political actions, they would rather
return to the political morass from whence they
came.
The idea of an alleged conspiracy between Tinubu
and Saraki against the President is an execrable
lie. Without any proof except the veil of innuendo
and some hatemongers masquerading as
presidency sources, the story proclaims that the
government is surveilling Asiwaju Tinubu because
of his purported unhappiness about the
ministerial list.
Too mischievous yet cowardly for their own good,
the yarn-spinners at the SUN neglect to precisely
state what terrible thing they believe Tinubu to
have done. This ambiguity is in part purposeful;
their villainy seeks to place the innocent on edge
and to cause those who must work together if the
nation is to progress to begin to doubt the bona
fides of each other. With such a story, they hope
to break the walls of confidence so that they may
kindle mutual animus between the President and
Tinubu. By getting the two to fight and weaken
each other, they may then swoop down to destroy
both.
If this nation is to have more than a fleeting
chance of escaping the quagmire into which years
of PDP misrule have taken us, we cannot allow
these regressive elements to deploy their cunning
tricks to divide and pit progressive against
progressive.
Here, I will do those who inhabit the shadows of
untruth a favor. I will state explicitly what they
hoped to get the reader to infer. Their claim is
that Tinubu has joined with Saraki to scuttle the
President’s ministerial nominations. They have
misfired.
Their wrong is a great wrong. Like the rest of us,
Asiwaju Tinubu waited for the President to select
his cabinet. The majority of the selections have
been made. There is nothing to do but
congratulate the appointees and pray for them.
Their responsibilities are vast, the future of the
nation now rests on their shoulders. The
challenges before them are manifold and
daunting. Those who want the best for Nigeria
can only hope that these people succeed. The
only intervention that Asiwaju Tinubu would make
is one of encouragement. He would charge them
to remain true to the progressive vision of the
party and our President. None should allow
themselves to be enticed to join league with those
who would cast us back into the old mould of PDP
governance: to Pilfer, Destroy and Pillage. Instead
they should cohere faithfully to the enlightened
programs and promises made by our party and
this government.
Other than voice this encouragement, Bola Tinubu
will never say a negative word or lift a finger to
forestall anyone’s approval before the Senate.
For the record, the Buhari Presidency was
brought to life by the votes of millions of
Nigerians who desire change. Such a collective
and historic achievement is not one that anyone
who worked to bring it to life would easily seek to
deconstruct.
This government is for the betterment of the
people and the national purpose is bigger and
more important that any individual’s desires.
In our journey to national betterment, plans and
policies will be made, then amended. Mistakes will
occur and then corrected. Achievements will be
had and replicated. Through it all, Asiwaju will
remain true to the progressive ideals that fuelled
the creation of the APC. He has devoted his
political life to achieve what has been achieved.
His heart is too much of the people and his mind
too fixed on establishing a positive historic legacy
to suffer such a cynical policy or engage in the
destructive pettiness of which he is accused.
He would not toss aside a lifetime’s labor because
of an alleged slight and certainly would not join
with Senator Saraki in stymying this government
which may just be the nation’s last best chance to
salvage itself.
Given the exigencies of his position, President
Buhari is placed in an unenviable position to
some degree. The duties of his office give him no
choice; necessity constrains him, requiring that he
discourse with Senator Saraki. As party leader,
Asiwaju is free of such constraints. On these
matters, I know where Asiwaju Tinubu stands. He
remains glued to the party decision that the
manner by which Saraki captured his current seat
travestied party discipline. It was a crass act of
disloyalty showing that Saraki may have joined the
APC on paper but has remained true to the
malpractices and wrong aims of the reactionary
PDP in his soul.
The alleged conspiracy is a figment. It takes at
least two people to make a conspiracy. There has
been no substantive communication between
Asiwaju and Saraki since the latter decided to foul
the integrity of the Senate and the party. To be
truthful, I don’t think Saraki would care to hear
what Asiwaju would have to say to him. He would
admonish the Senator to treat the nomination
process with dispatch, justice, fairness,
transparency, and most of all with the greatest
patriotism.
He would counsel Saraki to shelve his personal
situation for the moment to concentrate on the
people’s business. It would be a grave mistake
and abuse of office for Saraki to directly or
indirectly inject his personal matter into the
approval process. Saraki should not link the
approval of a single Minister to his desire for
extrajudicial treatment of his issues.
If adhering to the decisions of the party,
supporting the government’s progressive plank
and working for the good of the people qualifies
Tinubu for surveillance, then he will accept that.
However, we know that any such surveillance is
not from state security organs. Such activity
would come from the insecurity agencies of the
PDP and its mercenary allies elsewhere who would
seek to fragment the true core of the APC so that
they may scuttle the Buhari reform program and
return the nation to the misgovernance of the
past. They hope to delude the APC into attacking
itself. By so doing, they believe they can regain
through stealth, the reins of government the
people seized from them through elections. They
seek to break the hearts and hopes of the people.
Asiwaju Tinubu would never team with anyone to
gain such an inhumane objective.
While the Sun seems to have abandoned its
journalistic norms, Tinubu shall remain true to his
progressive ideals.
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