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The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu, did not visit former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to seek his endorsement for the 2023 race but out of share respect for his status as former president.
Dele Alake, former Commissioner for Information and Strategy Lagos State, who is the Adviser Media, Communications and Public Affairs of the APC Presidential Campaign Council made the clarification in a statement on Monday night.
Alake statement titled, “Lest Nigerian Youths Be Deceived By Obasanjo’s Sanctimony And Revisionism,” was on the heels of Chief Obasanjo open letter issued on Sunday where the former president asked Nigerians to vote for the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
The former Information Commissioner declared that Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate could not have visited the former president to seek his blessing for his ambition as he claimed that Obasanjo has no electoral value.
He said, “Contestants for the presidential office in Nigeria routinely consult with and court Obasanjo , not because of his electoral value which is minuscule, but out of respect for his status as a former Head of State. It is, however, obvious that the man himself has no respect for that status, as he continuously embroils himself in partisan politics in a most pretentious and dishonest manner and refuses to rise to the demands of statesmanship.
“In the statement entitled “My Appeal To All Nigerians Particularly Young Nigerians”, General Obasanjo rtd plumbed into new depth in hubris and hypocrisy never seen in all his career as political busybody after office who seems to see Nigeria as a movie where only he is the all-conquering hero while others are doomed villains.
“Even in the US, whose variant of presidential system of government we practise, former Presidents maintain a decorous distance from government after office, opting wisely not to be a distraction to their successors. Not so the meddlesome Obasanjo.”
The Adviser Media, Communications and Public Affairs of the APC PCC who recalled the former president alleged role in the formation of the Interim National Government led by late Ernest Shonekan after the annulment of June 12,1993 election, believed to have been won by the presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party, the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, further alleged that Chief Obasanjo was not interested in the victory of Peter Obi in next month election but how to undermine the democratic process for another ING.
“While Obasanjo’s right to support any candidate of his choice in the forthcoming presidential polls must be recognized as guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution, how condescending of him to decree his preference on Nigerians based on a cocktail of bare-faced lies and crude revisionism. In fact, there’s a widespread allegation that the latest gambit by the political busybody of Ota is part of a larger nefarious scheme to incite disorder around the country with a view to clearing the grounds for the resurrection of his favourite contraption: interim national government (ING) ! ”
While he maintained that Tinubu never sought Obasanjo’s support for his presidential ambition, Alake further recalled the animosity between Tinubu and Chief Obasanjo while the former was Lagos State governor and the latter sitting President.
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