The gagging up against the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, ahead of the 2023 presidency will fail as he is too big to be sacrificed by governors of the party.
This revelation was made by the immediate past National Vice Chairman, North Central, APC, Ahmed Suleiman Wambai in an interview with The Sun.
Wambai said the governors were against Adams Oshiomhole and Tinubu because of 2023 presidency.
He said some of the governors wanted to be the next president and some wanted to be the vice president, adding that “they forgot that only God Almighty determines who becomes the next president and vice president. Many of them are living in illusion.”
Wambai stated that it was because of that interest that they connived and deceived the president to sacrificed Oshiomhole.
‘On several instances, they had wanted the Oshiomhole-led NWC to be dissolved but Mr President refused. But they used everything at their disposal in their desperation to sack us. We have left the party, let them run it, let them produce the president in 2023,’ he said.
He warned that if the governors were ganging up against Tinubu, it would fail because he is a major stakeholder in the APC.
‘But if they are against Bola Tinubu, a major stakeholder in this party, there will definitely be a problem because he is too big to be sacrificed. I know that none of them dictating now, abusing Mr President and jostling to scheme out Tinubu will be able to deliver their zone,’ he added.
Wambai, however, said he had no regret for working with Oshiomhole’s National Working Committee, NWC, saying that he had paid his price and had done well, saying that those people against him were the same clique against Mr President, Tinubu and the principle of the rule of law.
‘They will object the moment things are not done their way. No party can function very well without discipline. We supported Oshiomhole for two reasons. One is because he is our leader and we are supposed to be obedient to him as a leader.’
‘In the dissolved APC NWC, it was only about two or three persons that were anti-Oshiomhole. We would have gotten justice if we had gone to the court but we did not because of the interest of the party we have in our heart. APC is above every member of the party,’ he said.
According to him, in the history of political party, Oshiomhole remained the only chairman that governors did not contribute money to the party purse under him.
‘No governor contributed to the running of the party under Oshiomhole. We did that so that the party could be independent.’
‘We never go cap in hand to any ministry for contract or patronages for the survival of the party. Oshiomhole was the only person that gave ₦20 million and N10 million contributions to all the Senators and House of Representatives candidates during the election.’
‘He was the only person that gave some governorship candidates of some states we desired to win like Imo, Kwara, Gombe and Zamfara ₦1 billion each, Benue, about ₦700 million. We did all these from the purse of the party. In the history of political party, no one has done that.’
‘Ask me the source of the money, it was through the sale of our nomination forms. We deliberately raised the price of the governorship nomination form to ₦22 million to reduce controversy, conflict and unnecessary competition,’ he said.
Wambai explained that ‘We wanted to stop some unserious persons from picking the form. We even refunded the money of those that lost the primaries. Oshiomhole has never been dictated to by Mr President, the governors or the Ministers. That is the ideal way a party should run as enshrined in the constitution of the party.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK