“They want to use me to make money and I said no” Tinubu Discuss at Chatham House
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for president, has expressed faith in Nigerians’ ability to support him in the 2023 election. According to Tinubu, who has dedicated his entire life to Nigeria, he is qualified to serve as the nation’s leader.
In a lecture yesterday at Chatham House in London with the title “Nigeria’s 2023 elections: In conversation with Tinubu,” the former governor of Lagos State took the stage.
Similar to how Muhammadu Buhari, the then-APC presidential candidate, was the center of attention in 2015, Tinubu was the main draw as the area around Chatham House experienced unusually high foot activity.
The election is particularly important for Nigeria because it will take place almost 24 years after the current democratic dispensation started in May 1999, according to the man who spoke for about 30 minutes at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, about his preparation and plans for Nigeria.
The APC government has distinguished itself in conducting credible elections, he noted as he lauded his party.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) candidate for the APC expressed faith in it and said that “technology will enable INEC produce a credible election.”
If elected president, Jagaban, as he is affectionately known, promised to provide loans to students at various institutions and to revamp the Almajiri system in the North.
Equally as important, the APC candidate for president pledged to increase the number of schools and hire/train teachers throughout the nation.
In terms of health, Tinubu promised to reverse the brain drain. He stated that his administration would end Nigeria’s medicine imports and start manufacturing them instead.
Tinubu stated his birthdate as a means of settling the age/identity squabble. He was born on March 29, 1952. He mentioned that others could view his records.
According to my family’s records, I was born on March 29, 1952. There is a record. It has the transcript. No other father is being claimed by me. I am a true Tinubu. They should speak if they need a DNA sample. One presidential contender has a dubious national identity, but I did not get into it. Chicago attested that I completed the program. I recently received another credential from the institution. I worked with Mobil Oil, and they confirmed that I departed as Treasurer. Make sure you’re standing straight, he advised.
Tinubu stated his reasons for not conducting one-on-one interviews with Nigerians throughout the conversation. I consider myself as a marketable individual, he said. I refused their offer to use me to generate income.
The candidate for the ruling party had drawn criticism for refusing to participate in live interviews or presidential debates, in contrast to his rivals.
Festus Keyamo, the APC Presidential Campaign Council’s (PCC) spokesman, responded by stating that Tinubu was not avoiding live interviews and that “campaigns have not started.” He will speak to the nation on numerous occasions.
For his side, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the deputy director of public relations at the PCC, claimed that Tinubu’s opponents’ plan of a live interview could not be imposed or coerced onto Tinubu.
When asked why he chose to use the delegation approach to answer questions following his presentation, Tinubu stated that he did it “to exhibit team-ship.”
Following his introductory remarks, Tinubu requested the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, to speak on how his (Tinubu’s) government will deal with insecurity. He also asked the PCC’s Dele Aleke, the director of strategic communication, to address a question about oil theft.
Wale Edun, a former commissioner for finance in Lagos, was chosen by Tinubu to speak on his behalf when asked how he would improve the economy if elected.
Questions were also answered by others, such as House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, and APC National Women’s Leader Dr. Beta Edu.
“Let me here illustrate one of those principles and beliefs that I really believe in. It is team-ship, an unbreakable team,” said Tinubu. I’ll assign it to my team to show that.
In response to queries about security, El-Rufai said that new strategies, including as expanding the number of security personnel, are needed to combat banditry, terrorism, separatism, and oil theft.
The Tinubu administration already has a plan, which is included in our action plan, to address this, so the statistics must alter. The size of the armed forces will increase. Not only will we increase the workforce, but also the training and the tools, he stated.
Alake responded to the query regarding Tinubu’s six-month plans to end oil theft and help Nigerians out of poverty. The ability of the private sector to invest in ways that would boost productivity, expand the economy, generate jobs, and combat poverty, he said, is the cornerstone to his strategy for boosting economic growth.
Additionally, Gbajabiamila reacted to the query regarding Tinubu’s defensive tactics. Edu responded to inquiries on, among other things, healthcare delivery and how to make the country’s brain drain into a brain gain.
APC National Chairman Abdullahi Adamu, his predecessor Adams Oshiomole, Iyiola Omisore, National Secretary, and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State, among many others, are also in attendance.
However, there was controversy outside the site before the 1:00 p.m. start of the event. “On your mandate we shall stand,” were the slogans being chanted by Tinubu’s supporters as they gathered near Chatham House. However, an opposition group led by Reno Omokri, a social media activist, came out of a side park and began yelling “Tinubu, Ole (thief), Tinubu, Ole.”
The Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization, meanwhile, called Tinubu’s appearance at Chatham House yesterday “a demonstration of vacuity” and “sad.”
In the article, it was stated that “Nigerians, including Tinubu supporters, were thoroughly embarrassed to watch APC presidential candidate, who earlier showboated with a scripted speech, go blank on the world stage in tragic display of emptiness and inability to personally address questions that were put to him on economy, security, and other challenges facing our nation.”
In a statement, Kola Ologbondiyan, the spokeswoman for the Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization, said that the campaign “finds it very appalling that a candidate aspiring to be the president of a nation as complex as Nigeria exhibited an embarrassing inability to coordinate his own thought process to the extent that he could not personally think through issues and address them but had to direct questions put to him, including those on his health and policies.”
“Tinubu has confirmed to Nigerians and the rest of the world that he has no business running in the 2023 presidential election; that he is utterly unqualified to be president; and that he intends to hand over the difficult job of leading our country to proxies and a cabal that did not seek votes from Nigerians,” the statement continued.
Nigerians “cannot afford” a president who “cannot accept responsibility to lead but plans to shift load to others, allegedly to find scapegoats to blame for his inevitable failures,” according to Ologbondiyan.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has also criticized Tinubu for declining debate invitations. According to the NNPP, this proves either that he lacks the authority to run Nigeria or that he has nothing to say to Nigerians.
Prof. Rufai Alkali, the national chairman of the NNPP, stated in a Monday press conference in Abuja that Tinubu should show up so that Nigerians may hear him and his vision for the nation.
He asserted that as the 2023 presidential election draws near, the media had to question each contender.
“NNPP will keep working with patriotic people and groups that support our vision and goal to save Nigeria and preserve democracy in the nation.
For the avoidance of doubt, our party will not be forced or subjected to blackmail in order to satisfy someone’s excessive desire to control Nigeria by whatever means.
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party (LP), pledged yesterday to replace the sharing formula, which has stymied Nigeria’s development, with productivity for the benefit of Nigeria’s future generations.
Additionally, he pledged to leave the north an educational system that would include instruction in independence-building skills for students attending Koranic schools.
LP and Northeastern Stakeholders organized an interactive event with the theme “Good Governance: Gateway to Secure Our People” at Merit House in Maitama, Abuja, where Obi spoke.
“Everyone is splitting the pie, so I want to replace the sharing formula with a production formula. I want to offer the kids a future, so it might work.
“The youth, the children, and the ladies are important to me. I want to provide education to the 20 million North-resident youngsters who are not in school. They are bright kids who are already studying the Koran, so it is really nothing complicated. We will meet them where they are receiving Koranic instruction and provide them with training.
Obi urged the North East’s stakeholders not to let the nation decline. “Don’t vote for me because I’m running as someone from the far east; I’m not searching for compassion. I’m running because I’m qualified, experienced, and most experienced.”
They claimed that out of the four of us, I am a successful businessman, and that we are the front-runners. I am familiar with what it takes to manage both the public and economic spheres.
“I have competed in both corporate and public races. I have a thought, and I’m the youngest of them all. Thus, it is a work that demands both cerebral and physical energy. Therefore, I ask you to vote carefully, if not for the person whose character we can trust, then for the sake of our children.”
It should be built on commitment as well as competence, capacity, and capability to perform the assignment. I want to be accountable to Nigerians. I want to be the one who kick-started the development of a new Nigeria.
