Obasanjo can’t tell us who to vote for – Tinubu

The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, lambasted former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the recent letter of criticism he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the ex-President had no right to dictate who the people should vote for in the 2019 presidential election.

The former Lagos State governor, who said Obasanjo did his terms in office without being disturbed, urged him to face his poultry business in his Ota farm.

Tinubu said if Obasanjo had laid a good foundation for the country when he was President, like he (Tinubu) did in Lagos State, Nigeria would not be in the mess that it was in.

Tinubu spoke at the Lagos APC secretariat in Ogba on Tuesday during the party’s stakeholders’ meeting.

Present at the meeting were Governor Akinwunmi Ambode; Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudasiru Obasa; the Chairman of the Lagos State APC, Tunde Balogun, and other party stalwarts in Lagos.

Tinubu, who switched between Yoruba and English languages, said having brought Buhari in, the party would also ensure his re-election next year, notwithstanding Obasanjo’s opposition.

“Look at us in Lagos, we can get angry with one another, it is only God that has perfection. When you elected me as governor, I laid the foundation. If we didn’t lay the foundation for Lagos, there’s no amount of wisdom that Fashola may have that will make the state as progressive as it has been.

“If we didn’t lay the foundation, there’s no amount of wisdom that Ambode may possess that will make things as smooth as they are…so, Obasanjo that is talking, if he had laid a strong foundation in Abuja, the country would not have scattered; things would not have been going the way they are going. And you (Obasanjo) want to sit in Ota; face your chicken and egg business.

“You cannot govern from Ota; you cannot tell us who to vote for; you have used up your time. Let us tell Obasanjo so. Our Buhari is our own; we were the ones who brought him and we will secure the second term for him,” Tinubu said in Yoruba language.

He described those who defected from the APC as political prostitutes who were bound by conspiracy.

Tinubu said in spite of the defections, “We (the APC) remain strong.”

“You heard we won in Bauchi; you heard we won in Kogi; you heard we won in Katsina. Did we wear a bandage around our neck to win? We went to Ekiti, what did we bring back? Governor! The broom swept them, cleanly,” Tinubu said, boasting that the Ekiti feat would be replicated in Osun State in the September 22 governorship election.

Tinubu, however, announced that the party’s candidates in Lagos State would be chosen via direct primaries.

He urged old members to hold on to their membership cards, while new members were encouraged to join.

“We are going to register additional members; new members. We must open our register throughout the state and hold me responsible if you don’t have your membership card at the end of the registration.

“We are going to use only the membership card of the APC for the primaries,” he said.

He charged party members to ensure they collect their PVCs before the August 17 deadline, saying they should sleep at the collection centres if they had to.

Tinubu said any local government chairman who frustrated the PVC collection by members and ended up with a high number of uncollected PVCs after the August 17 deadline risked being removed from office or suspended.

He said the same fate awaited party chairmen, and party executive members who failed to cooperate and ensure that new members were registered to join the APC.

Tinubu, however, said any of the council chairmen and party executives who performed well would be rewarded with the second term, as a “bonus.”

“That is how our party is,” he declared.

He also warned the aspirants not to be tempted to fight over registration of new members, saying they risked being screened out.

“Write it down,” he said.

In his remarks, Ambode described the direct primary being introduced by the Lagos APC as “the beginning of the uplift of governance in Nigeria.”

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