Tinubu
Obviously, the dinner with the president was held to further the peace initiatives by the ruling party to reconcile the warring factions in the National Assembly.
It would be recalled that the APC lawmakers in both chambers of the national assembly have been at loggerheads since the elections last month that threw up Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Their election was in defiance of the preferred nominees of the party for the two positions.
Loyalists of Tinubu lost in the race for the leadership of the national assembly and since then, he has refused to speak on the issue either in the open or in public.
After the breaking of fast with Mr President, hordes of journalists who have been looking for an opportunity to get Tinubu’s response to the crisis in the national assembly bombarded him right there in the Villa.
Tinubu, while talking to them was evasive in his response, stating: “that is an area where I am very cautious of my position and my utterances. I still want to keep my side of the interpretation or analysis to be able to achieve a resolution of the matter as quickly as possible.”
He stated that he was in support of what the president had carefully enumerated and articulated to the party on the issue, adding: “the party is supreme. The party must have disciplined leadership and followers. The party’s process must be respected because that is the confidence and the trust of the people.
“However, in every environment, we could have conflicts and conflict resolution mechanisms would be applied to resolve all the problems so we are there.
“There is honour in every struggle and every competition; there must be honour in victory too.”
Tinubu also used the opportunity to deny the claims by some of his antagonists that he has been making demands from President Muhammadu Buhari, as to who the latter should appoint to his government.
He said he respects Buhari and remains loyal to him.
He said: “I have no demands. If you understand what party politics and leadership is all about, it is about loyalty and commitment to the values, which the leadership believes in.
“I believe in what the president believes in. I respect him and I stand firmly loyal to his cause. So you can go to any length of speculation that you might want, I have not responded to all of that because I understand the president and the president understands me clearly.”
He further called on Nigerians to ignore the claims by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that, Buhari was too slow, saying that the President could not be expected to clean up the mess left behind by the PDP’s 16 years of bad governance in 30 days.
“We are different, we cannot be PDP, we are APC, and we will not repeat their mistakes. We know their mistakes, errors, we understand what Nigeria wanted and Nigerians gave this party victory because of our manifesto,” he said.
“We are pro-people, we are progressives. We have had a conservative government in the last 16 years; this is a progressive party, just coming in barely 30 days.
“We understand the hopes of Nigerians, we understand the expectations of Nigerians, we believe in that expectation and in our promise of prosperity to the people. We will not change that,” he said.
Tinubu described the APC as armoured personnel carrier, APC, saying it represented the diversity of Nigeria.
While thanking Buhari for the opportunity to break fast with him and for bringing together people from different background regardless of religious affiliations, he said: “We believe this diversity will continue to propel us for economic growth under your leadership.
“This is the first Ramadan after the election, we thank God for cutting down the opponents’ 60 years of fake promises to 16 years.
“I heard them say we are slow. Yes, we didn’t campaign to be fire fighters, but planners and meticulous ones at that. A latrine of 16 years can’t be cleaned up in 30 days because the mess is much.
“Mr. President, you started well, you hit the ground running. You promised Nigerians that you will address security and your first meeting with the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) presidents, was on security because we cannot fight it alone.
“You have been to other places; if they think it is a game of Ludo, we will say it is serious business. If they forgot G7, we will remind them.
“We have faith in you Mr. President; we have faith in your capacity and uprightness. I’m here filled up and not fed up.
“We promise to continue to be with you and support you, no matter what they are saying we are not re-running the election until four years time.
“We pray to God to give us four more years of this month and pray to Him to forgive our misdeeds and for peace and stability.
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was born on March 29, 1952, in Lagos . He attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos, and Children’s Home School in Ibadan . Tinubu went to the United States in 1975, where he studied first at Richard J. Dailey College in Chicago, Illinois , and then at Chicago State University . He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.
His political career began in 1992, when he was elected to the Nigerian Senate representing the Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic. After the results of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections were annulled, Tinubu became a founding member of the pro-democracy movement, the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, which mobilized support for the restoration of democracy and recognition of the 12 June results. He went into exile in 1994 and returned to the country in 1998, after the death of military dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, which ushered in a new democratic order.
In April 1999, he stood for the position of Executive Governor of Lagos State on the platform of Alliance for Democracy, AD, as the party’s governorship candidate .He won the gubernatorial election.
Tinubu completed his second term tenure as Lagos State Governor on May 29, 2007.
After the expiration of his tenure , the Jagaban Borgu , as he is fondly called by his admires, handed over to his political godson, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) of the Action Congress (AC) . Before then,. Fashola had been Chief of Staff to Bola Tinubu
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