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How I Saved Tinubu’s Political Career As Lagos Governor
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Says Shettima Carried Away With Euphoria Of Unveiling Of His Official Residence
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Reveals How He Was Nominated By All Delegates From All The States
Vice President Kashim Shettima has come under scathing criticism from former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar over his comment that the former VP once benefited from President Bola Tinubu’s political goodwill when they were being persecuted.
Trouble started when Shettima, while declaring open the Third Expanded National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Business Clinics in Ado-Ekiti threw a jibe at Atiku by saying that the former VP turned Tinubu’s Bourdillon home into a sanctuary when he was allegedly being harassed, intimidated, dehumanised and chased out of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“He has been a veritable sanctuary for victims of political witch-hunts. When Atiku Abubakar was harassed in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it was Bourdillon he ran to for support and it was in Bourdillon that he got the needed support and later contested for the presidency of this country” Shettima had said.
Reacting to this, Atiku said it was he (Abubakar) that saved President Tinubu’s political career.
According to a statement by Paul Ibe, Atiku’s spokesperson, he said Tinubu was not in a position to lend the party’s platform to Atiku in 2007 as erroneously portrayed by Shettima.
He disclosed that without his support, Tinubu’s political career could have ended as the governor of Lagos State.
He added that Atiku was nominated as the presidential candidate by all the party’s delegates from all parts of the country.
“But for Atiku’s support, 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 termination of his political career,” he 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 that actually benefited immensely from Atiku’s goodwill. But for Atiku’s support, 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 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.
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“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 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.”
He added that Tinubu was not in a position to lend the platform to Atiku “as erroneously being suggested, as he (Atiku) was nominated by all the delegates from all the states”.
He went further to name the delegates to the primaries of the election 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.
