How I Made Buhari President When He Lost All Hope – Tinubu Makes Case |READ IN FULL
The national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a 2023 presidential aspirant under the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has claimed that he solely made Muhammadu Buhari become president of Nigeria in 2015.
Addressing APC delegates on Ogun state, Tinubu said he brought Buhari out of his political retirement and gave him hope again after he had lost hope having contested and lost election in 2003, 2007 and 2011 respectively.
According to the presidential hopeful, he went to meet Buhari in Katsina and encouraged him to contest again for 2015 presidency with the condition that power will move to the yoruba’s come 2023.
Tinubu also claimed to have ceded his ‘Vice Presidential right’ to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, adding that he also made Dapo Abiodun become Ogun state governor in 2019.
Tinubu addressed the delegates in Yoruba language, but a translation of the video which has now gone viral is thus;
“If not me that led the war front, Buhari would not have emerged. He contested first, second and third times, but lost. He even said on television that he would not contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina, I told him you would contest and win, but ‘you would not joke with Yoruba matters.
“Since he has emerged, I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get a contract.
“This time, it’s the Yoruba’s turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my tenure.”
“This one sitting behind me here (Abiodun), could not have become governor without me? We were at the stadium; they tore all his posters. Even the party flag, they didn’t want to hand over it to him, I was the one who brought it.
“If he wants to meet God at the right place, he must know that he would not have become governor without God and me.”
“Buhari wanted me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked (Chuba) Okadigbo; flamboyant, catholic, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him (Buhari). The second time, he picked another Igbo, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him, that if he brought the Pope to run as his deputy, Nigerians would not vote for him, that ‘you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my running mate.
“He knew all the calculations then favoured us. That was why he wanted me as his running mate, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, we brought in people from the PDP. Saraki saw that those from the PDP would not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim becomes the President and me, also a Muslim becomes his deputy. He won’t become the Senate President and the Senate President could not also be a Muslim. That was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.
“And I told them that I had a candidate that is a Christan that I could nominate so that the party would not break. That was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo).
“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbajo, but I told them if I submitted three names, they would play a game. They may make it four and pick the fourth one. I gave them one name and that was Osinbajo.”
“It is my time, I’m educated, I’m experienced. I have been serving you people for a long time, bring me the presidency, it is my turn.
“When Atiku was being flogged out of the PDP by Obasanjo, he ran to me for help. I let him have the ticket. Nuhu Ribadu came to me and I backed him.
“If not for me that stood behind Buhari, he wouldn’t have become the president. He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third, he failed. He even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he would run again and I will stand by him and he will win, but he must not joke with the Yoruba and he agreed.
“Since he became the President, I have never got ministerial slots; I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him, it is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn.”
