One of the frontline presidential aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Thursday, opened up on how he led the political struggle that produced President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Tinubu also categorically said he nominated Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate.
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He spoke at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while addressing APC delegates ahead of the party’s primaries.
Tinubu was in company of Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Kano counterpart, Umar Ganduje and former Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima.
The former governor of Lagos State said he made the revelations for the first time in Ogun State, home state of Osinbajo, one of his rivals for the APC presidential ticket.
He said Buhari had offered him the running mate ticket, but some blocs rose against him, fanning embers of Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The former governor also said when he was asked to submit three names for running mate, he pencilled Yemi Kadoso, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbajo.
He added that he later settled for Osinbajo as running mate.
“You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this,” Tinubu who addressed the delegates in Yoruba said.
Also speaking on Buhari’s emergence, he said: “If not for me that stood behind Buhari, he wouldn’t have become the president.
“He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third time, he failed, he even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again; I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yoruba and he agreed.
“Since he became the president, I have never gotten ministerial slots; I didn’t collect any contract. I have never begged for anything from him, it is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn.”
He maintained that he had enthroned many political leaders and it was his time to become president.
“I don’t want to lose in history,” he said.
Tinubu also said without God and him, Governor Dapo Abiodun would not have emerged in 2019 election.
“This one (referring to Abiodun) that’s sitting down here, could he have become governor without me? We were at the stadium, they tore all his posters. Even the party flag, they didn’t want to hand it over to him, I was the one who brought it.
“If he wants to meet God at the right place, he must know that without God and me, he would not have become governor.”
In his remarks, Abiodun who had earlier declared his support for Osinbajo’s candidature refused to endorse Tinubu.
He told Tinubu that delegates from the state would do “the right thing” at the convention.
Abiodun described Tinubu as a political warrior, serial winner and strategist.
