Akande, Buhari and Tinubu.
The National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and a former Governor of
Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, held a secret meeting with President
Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday.
The visit came less than 24 hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo met with Buhari.
Addressing State House correspondents
after the one-hour meeting, Tinubu, who is a former Governor of Lagos
State, said he did not come to submit any ministerial list to the
President.
“What
can I do about that, they have the right to speculate, they have the
right to their lies and I have the right to debunk,” he said.
However, a reliable source told one of
our correspondents that the ministerial list was one of the topics
discussed at the meeting.
The source said just as Tinubu was given
the power to pick Buhari’s running mate during the electioneering,
Buhari was giving him the privilege of filling some positions that
should go to the South-West.
He said, “Buhari never marginalised the
South-West as is being reported. Most of the northern appointments that
Buhari made are those that will work closely with him in the villa and
Tinubu was not really interested in them.
“It was Tinubu that recommended
Babatunde Fowler to head the Federal Inland Revenue Service and that is
the next best thing after oil which many people don’t understand.
“Buhari has insisted that people that
are answering to cases of corruption will not be part of his government
and Tinubu is aware of this. He has recommended a former commissioner in
Lagos for appointment too and he will be part of Buhari’s economic team
even if he is not appointed as a minister.”
When asked how many ministerial slots
Buhari had given Tinubu, the source said he could not say for sure but
added that Buhari was planning to compensate Tinubu for losing out to
Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara during the National
Assembly internal elections
He added, “Every state is expected to
produce a minister and we already know that there will be some issues
with some stubborn state governors. So, if Tinubu loses out at the
ministerial level, he will be made to nominate the chairman of some
parastatals and government agencies.”
When asked to explain why Tinubu and
Akande chose to visit Buhari just a day after Obasanjo, the source said,
“It was purely coincidental. Buhari is travelling out of the country
tomorrow (today) and Tinubu wanted to tidy up some things before the
President’s departure.”
Meanwhile, Tinubu has dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s allegations of dictatorship levelled against President Buhari.
Tinubu, in an interview with State House correspondents said the PDP should be quiet, if it did not have anything to say.
The former governor stated that the PDP
created the rot that Buhari was cleaning, adding that the rot could not
be swept under the carpet.
The PDP governors, after a meeting in
Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on Tuesday said Nigeria was sliding
into dictatorship under the leadership of Buhari.
Defending the President, Tinubu said,
“What is dictatorship about what he has done? He has helped to stimulate
the economy in the various states and that is where the people are. So
what is dictatorship? And the institutional paralysis had occurred in
the country.
“It is very important for a steady man
like the President to really help the nation recover from the paralysis
and that is what he is doing so I don’t see what is dictatorial about
that. If they don’t have anything to say, they rather be quiet. They
created what is wrong here today and we can’t sweep that under the
carpet. There must be rule of law.”
He also denied a claim that he went to
the Presidential Villa to submit the ministerial list to Buhar, saying,
“What can I do about that, they have the right to speculate, they have
the right to their lies and I have the right to debunk.”
The APC leader said that there was no power struggle between him and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar
“Our party is not even looking at the
direction of power struggle or anything of such. The support structure
is to encourage and support the President as you have heard from Chief
Bisi Akande, to help him institutionalize his goal, principle and vision
for a new Nigeria,” Tinubu stated.
He defended Buhari against criticisms
that trailed his delay in releasing ministerial list, adding that there
was a pitfall in rushing.
Tinubu stated, “Rush can cascade into
mistakes of unimaginable magnitude. There is equally glory and recovery
in slowness, when you have a slow fix of a bad foundation. So to me, I
would rather take the one that will last the country and endeavour for a
longer period of time than the rush hour shopping.”
Also speaking ,Akande, who was at the
meeting, said the President “inherited piles of rot.” He said that they
discussed the rot the PDP left for it was defeated.
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