Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has said but for his support, President Bola Tinubu’s political career would have collapsed following faceoff with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku made this statement in response to the widely held belief that President Tinubu came to his aid after his disagreement with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. This support led to Atiku running for president under the Action Congress (AC) in 2007. Atiku mentioned that without his support for President Tinubu, his political career may have ended when he was just the governor of Lagos State.
Atiku, in a statement through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, said, “Vice President Kashim Shettima goofed when he claimed that former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar benefited from President Bola Tinubu’s goodwill when he was being “persecuted” in the PDP.
“Truth be told, it was Tinubu who actually benefited immensely from Atiku’s goodwill. But for Atiku’s support, which hinged on his pro-democracy instincts and rule of law, Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos would have been rough, with a wide possibility of the termination of his political career.
“For some time, and especially leading up to the 2023 election, there has been a deliberate attempt to distort the history of the politics of the early 4th Republic by ascribing the AC, the political platform that Atiku ran in 2007 as Tinubu’s party.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. Vice President Shettima, obviously carried away with the euphoria of the unveiling of his official residence as Vice President, repeated the same lie.
“Shettima needs to be reminded that Atiku did not run under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), but the Action Congress (AC). AC came out of a coalition of ACD (Advance Congress of Democrats), formed by mainly PDM members and other associates, and Tinubu’s faction of AD.”
According to him, President Tinubu was not in a position to lend the platform to Atiku “as erroneously suggested, as he (Atiku) was nominated by all the delegates from all the states.”
He then went further to name the delegates to the election’s primaries that threw up the former Vice President as the party’s presidential candidate to include Atiku Abubakar himself, Lawal Keita, Amb. Yahaya Kwande, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Alexis Anielo, Titi Ajanaku, former Governor Rasheed Ladoja, Chief Tom Ikimi, and Chief Dapo Sarumi.
Others he said were Chief Sergeant Awuse, Alh. Lawan, Dr. Chris Ngige, Prof Ango Abdulahi, Dr Farouk Abdul Azeez, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Ejiofor Onyia, and Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, among others.
