Buhari must pay me back with presidency or nothing – Tinubu

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos State governor and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that nobody in the party could match all the sacrifices he had made for continued existence of APC from the days of defunct Action Congress (AC) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before its final political metamorphosis to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Tinubu, who is seeking APC ticket to run in 2023 general elections as the candidate of APC, declared in Abeokuta, the Ogun state Capital on Thursday that it’s pay back time for him and President Muhammadu Buhari as well as other stakeholders that knew the sacrifices he made and what he underwent in 2015 to ensure that then retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari returned as democratically-elected president of Nigeria.

While speaking with APC delegates, State Executives, Governor Dapo Abiodun and his Cabinet on Thursday in company of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and Governor Abdullahi Gabduje of Kano, Tinubu boasted that he aided emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari and chose Yemi Osinbajo as Vice President, saying that the only thing they could use to compensate him for the sacrifices made is to make President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The former Lagos state governor, who was excused by the Ogun state APC delegates to speak in Yoruba, said, “Since the time we started with the Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now the All Progressives Congress (APC), I had wanted to contest for President that time.

“This is me telling you between my life and God Almighty, Buhari called me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked Okadigbo, flamboyant, catholic; but Nigerians didn’t vote for him. The second time, he picked another Igbo, Ume-Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him, and if he goes to bring the Pope to run as his Vice, Nigerians won’t vote for him, but you Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my Vice.

“He knew all the calculations then favoured us, that is why he wanted me as his Vice, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, after we brought in people from the PDP, Saraki now saw those from the PDP would not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim becomes the President and me, also a Muslim becomes his Vice, he won’t get the Senate President and the Senate President cannot also be a Muslim, that was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.

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“And I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christan that I can nominate so that the party will not break, that was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to to Osinbajo.

“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbajo, but I told them if I submit three names I might give room for something else.

“So, if I had gone that much, it is my time, I’m educated, I’m experienced. I have been serving you (President Buhari and others) for a long time, bring the me presidency, it is my turn. When Atiku was being flogged out of PDP by Obasanjo, he ran to me for help, I let the ticket for him. 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 time, he failed, he even wept on a national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again, I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas 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.”

Berating Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State for supporting Vice President Yemi Osinbajo against his ambition as next president, Tinubu lambasted Governor Abiodun, saying if he didn’t help Abiodun against then incumbent Governor Ibikunle Amosun, he couldn’t have become Ogun state governor.

“It has been over 22 years now that I have been serving them. This one sitting behind me, Dapo, (referring to Governor Abiodun) can he say he can be the Governor without me?

“We were together at the MKO Abiola Stadium, he was intimidated, they didn’t want to give him the party flag, I was the one that handed the flag to him. He knows that he cannot be the governor without the help of God and my support.”