By Gideon Njoku
Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the February 25th General Elections, Atiku Abubakar, has revealed how he and President Bola Tinubu parted ways.
Both men were great friends and great political allies, but have since become bitter political enemies.
In response to a question, after he addressed a Press Conference in Abuja on Thursday as to why he betrayed President Tinubu, and stabbed him at the back, Atiku said the contrary is the case. He explained that contrary to a statement credited to a Tinubu aide on Wednesday to the effect that he, Atiku, owes a debt to Tinubu, it is Tinubu who owes him, Atiku, that debt. He explained he had always watched Tinubu’s back, and was instrumental to Tinubu’s second term in office as a Governor. Without him, Atiku said, in 2003, President Olusegun Obasanjo could have taken Lagos State from Tinubu as he did other South-west States. He said he was the one who stood between Obasanjo, whose Vice President he was at the time, and Tinubu, and told Obasanjo to leave Lagos alone for Tinubu. “So, who owes whom?”, Atiku asked. “I never betrayed Tinubu”, he added.
He revealed that he and Tinubu parted ways in 2007 over a Muslim-Muslim ticket. As the Presidential Candidate of the AC, Atiku said, Tinubu wanted to be his running mate. But he said he rejected that because he didn’t think such a ticket would be fair to Nigerians, especially, in a country like ours.
Atiku: “Those of you who are old enough will also remember that in 2003, the PDP took over all the South Western States, with the exception of Lagos.
“I stood between Obasanjo and himself – Tinubu – and I said ‘no, you – Obasanjo- can’t take over Lagos. Leave it, and he, Obasanjo, left it’. So, who is indebted to whom? Is it me or Bola Ahmed Tinubu? I vehemently deny that I stabbed Tinubu in the back. There are other things I will not want to go into.”
“I beg to disagree on the allegation of betrayal of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, it is true that in 2007, we came together to form an alliance in Lagos, and at the convention, I contested and got the ticket. After I got the ticket, he sent me about five or six seniors, some of them are here. I can even name them, but I don’t want to embarrass them.
“They met me and said to me that Bola wanted to be my running mate. I said to them, ‘Gentlemen, you are all old enough, and apparently, and virtually, all of you are Christians with the exception of one person. What will be your reaction to having a Muslim-Muslim ticket?’
“All of them said we totally object to it, and I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell him when he was giving you the message that, look, Mr Tinubu, the message you are sending us, we don’t seem to agree with you on it. Why are you coming then to me?’
“And that was the end of our political relationship. We broke away. So, what is the ground for him to say that I betrayed him?
“Till today, I won’t do a Muslim-Muslim ticket. I don’t have to be President. We are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious people, and our Government must reflect our diversity, and our composition must reflect the same.”
