The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said on Sunday that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, left the All Progressives Congress because of the party’s refusal to grant their wishes of automatic tickets for next year’s elections.
Tinubu explained that the defectors were also disappointed because the APC refused to share “national wealth and other offices and privileges.”
Tinubu said contrary to Tambuwal’s claim, the governor’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party had nothing to with the governance of the nation.
“Governor Tambuwal’s exit can be distilled to one cause. He covets the Presidency. However, he had not the stomach to challenge President Buhari in a primary. Tambuwal felt further insulted that he would be compelled to face a direct primary just to retain the governorship nomination,” Tinubu said in a statement titled, “They go away because we go the right way,” which he personally signed.
He said Saraki, on his own, had realised that he might not even get the ticket to return to the Senate, much less become the Senate President.
Tinubu said, “Much the same for Senate President Saraki. Returning to the PDP, he harbours dreams of the presidency but Tambuwal’s ambition will dwarf Saraki’s when the two collide.
“If Saraki had remained in the APC, he would be unable to reclaim his Senate seat let alone the Senate Presidency. He thus bolted because he lusts for the presidency but was promised by the PDP, at least, a return to his position in the Senate.
“For Saraki to talk about lack of governance is for him to deny who he is and the position he holds. This man stands as Nigeria’s number three citizen. Clothed is he in ample power and influence. If he saw areas where the government and the nation needed help, he could have easily applied his energies to these areas. He could have drafted legislation and easily got laws passed.
“However, no progressive enactment bears his name for he cared not for progress. He has been more focused on changing the rules of the Senate to favour himself and changing the order of elections so as to coincide with his selfish designs.”
Tinubu said Nigeria was undergoing a historic transition, with the door steadily closing on “the old malpractices that have caused a rich nation to reside in the tenement of the global poor.”
The statement read, “The defections of some people from the APC have generated sensational headlines and exaggerated talk as to what their departures foretell for the APC, the party to which I belong. Some have predicted the demise of the APC. Those who hope for our decline will be disappointed by the inaccuracy of their desires. The days, months and years ahead will bury such errant forecasts for these predictions are born more of bitterness than of objective analysis.
“Much of the attention has centred on which party now controls this or that state and which party maintains a majority in the National Assembly. These considerations are important to members of the political class and the electoral calculations of the political parties. But these calculations cannot be all there is. We must be careful not to reduce our horizon to a mere accounting of elected officials moving from one party to another.
Nigeria is undergoing a historic transition. Sometimes awkwardly, tentatively, yet inexorably, we nurture political and governance reform. We steadily close the door on the old malpractices that have caused a rich nation to reside in the tenement of the global poor. The corruption of the past is ending; for it must end if we are to fulfil our collective purpose. With this correction, less public money will be diverted to private benefit. More will be afforded to the causes of the people. The economy is being transformed so that the average person will have a better chance of finding a better life.”
