Buhari cements ties with Tinubu
President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, have warmed up to each other lately as Nigeria approaches election year.
Their relationship cooled long after the 2015 general off not election which Buhari won support from Tinubu.
The mark-up in their ties was noticed when Tinubu hopped on the presidential plane to join Buhari for a trip to ECOWAS meeting in Cote d Ivoire last year.
On Monday when Buhari declared the year long tenure extension granted to the APC national leaders as illegal and that election must hold to elect with critical new leaders, Tinubu was full of praise for the president whom he said had restored democracy in the ruling party.
But yesterday at a colloquium held in honour of Tinubu to mark his 66th birthday there was out-pouring of effusion between Buhari and the national leader even as both hurled political barbs against the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
In his remarks the President said: “I am happy to be here with you to celebrate the birthday of my friend and political partner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I call on all Nigerians to join me in celebrating this man. Asiwaju Tinubu is widely known as a political strategist. But strategy is barren unless wedded to a higher purpose than just itself.
“Here, Asiwaju also sets himself
apart. I have come to see him as a man who cares about people and who is a fountain of ideas for economic development and improving the situation of the common man and woman. He is a true humanitarian and we appreciate his contributions to Nigeria’s and Africa’s progress.”
On his part Tinubu said there was a difference between PDP’s administration and that of the ruling APC.
“I am happy that President Buhari has saved the ship from wreckage.’’ Tinubu said.
He added; “We are redirecting Nigeria. We have a nation to rescue and thank God we have a good leader to emulate.’’
The former Lagos State governor told the former ruling party, the PDP, to forget its ambition of returning to power.
Tinubu called on Nigerians not to accept the recent apology tendered by the PDP, saying the party has done enough damage to the country.
He recalled that despite having nothing beyond the brooms, the APC was able to mobilise Nigerians to engender political revolution that catapulted it to Nigerian leadership position. He thanked Nigeria for remaining steadfast and assured them of better future with APC.
“I can see what the government is doing. We didn’t say we won’t have challenges but we understand the need to invest in people.
“Looking at where we are coming from, people say don’t talk about it and I asked: what should we talk about? President, forget that they won’t come back.
“No matter how they say it, no matter how they want to twist it, PDP, you looted our treasury, you wasted our resources, and you didn’t do what you promised to do for us in 16 years. There is a difference between them and us,” Tinubu said.
He also hit out at former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Although, he didn’t mention the former leader by name, he nonetheless berated Obasanjo for writing what he described as “bad belle letters.”
“Somebody is writing letters these days, political letters. As if they have not been there before. They are writing bad belle letters. I don’t want to abuse it because I have had the best birthday I can imagine,” he said.
On PDP recent apology, Tinubu said:” Dear Nigerians, don’t accept their apology. When they were there, they lied, falsified and changed figures. For 16 years, they said don’t talk about it. It is like when you catch a thief and he says to you ‘don’t talk about it, just go there and steal your own.”
In other remarks the President said just as Tinubu had done so much for the people, his administration had been using the Social Investment Programmes and home grown school feeding initiatives to invest in the Nigerian people.
“We believe in investing in people so that tomorrow will be ... Mr party, better and good will triumph over evil. Our goal is to bring every section of the country together. And to accomplish our mission, we must invest in people.
“We are using the Social Investment and the school feeding programme to empower Nigerians and secure a better future. This we are resolute about and we are ready to make Nigeria great,” Buhari said.
Earlier, the President commissioned the new bus park station built by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode while Vice President Yemi Osinbajo represented him at the turning of sod at the new Lekki Deep Sea Port, Lekki Free Trading Zone, Lekki, Lagos.
In his speech Vice President Yemi Osinbajo lashed out at the former ruling party saying the current administration will not stop talking about atrocities committed by the party while in power.
Osinbajo, whose speech was titled, “Tying the Knots, Linking the Philosophy to Governance and Commitment” said it had become expedient to talk about the ignominy of the past so as to mobilize the people “to take their resources and say: never again we will allow people to plunder our resources this way again.”
He said Nigeria is currently where it is because of the level of corruption by the PDP administration that was in power for 16 years.
“We must be able to defend the rights of ordinary people. The sum of $3billion which equals N1 trillion was lost to Strategic Alliance. The people just took the oil and never paid anything back. The same N1 trillion we are using today to construct many roads in different parts of the country today. But they said we should not talk about it. What then should we talk about? We must not allow the criminal looting of Nigeria to continue,” Osinbajo said.
The Vice President however thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for giving him a free hand to operate, especially in the management of social investment programmes. He said the numerous social investment programmes are geared towards ameliorating people’s suffering.
Earlier, Lagos State Governor, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said of Tinubu: “His era as Governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 showed the depth of his governance capacity. After his gubernatorial years, he has continued to show pivotal leadership, particularly on the national stage. It is not for nothing that he is acknowledged for his defining role in the emergence of a progressive political party in Nigeria,” Ambode said. the
Chieftains of the APC yesterday underscored the significance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Lagos State.
Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North), told the Daily Trust on phone last night that Lagos and the South West are strategic to Nigeria’s political and economic developments and Buhari’s visit would increase the bond between the Federal Government and the region.
Besides, he added that President Buhari’s presence at the colloquium organized in honour of Tinubu at 66 sent a strong signal that the two leaders revered each other.
“Leadership is not just about managing crisis or security breaches. President Buhari had taken his time at the seat of power (Abuja) fine tuning the direction of government. And just recently, he had visited almost all the states that have serious security issues for on the state assessment and we have seen the fruits of those visit. A lot has been achieved in Lagos in the last twenty years when Asiwaju laid a solid foundation of good governance and economic diversification. Buhari was there to celebrate this feat,” he said.
The Deputy Director, Coordination/Implementation of the APC’s Presidential Campaign Council in 2015, Malam Mohammed Lawan, said the reception accorded Buhari in Lagos proved sceptics wrong about his popularity in the South West and his ties with Tinubu.
Lawan, who is now a Board member of the NNPC, said, “As you can see, Tinubu felt greatly honoured by Buhari’s visit; it has changed the thinking of many people. Even if there are issues before, this singular visit and recent happenings in the APC have shown that the president and the Asiwaju have made it up.
“Those who feel President Buhari would not find it easy in the South West have already buried their heads in shame; Buhari believes that he belongs to all the people in all the six geo- political zones in the country,” he said.
Another member of the APC Caucus said the visit was significant because of three reasons. “Lagos had in 2016 completed arrangements to receive the president but he took ill; he has now made up for that. Secondly, it is to cement his relationship with Tinubu and the South West at large and finally, he has visited many states as president and should not be forgotten because of its strategic political advantage,” he said. visit to