A
national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, subtly
mocked former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recently published public statement
addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him not to throw his hat into
the ring in 2019.
Speaking at the annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium
held Thursday in Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr Tinubu talked about a ‘bad belle
letter’ written by “a certain individual who had had opportunity to be in
office before.”
Mr Obasanjo recently released a long, strongly
worded ‘special press statement’ in which he asked President Muhammadu Buhari
to resist the temptation to contest again in 2019.
It is however unclear if Mr Tinubu was
referring to Mr. Obasanjo because a few weeks after the latter released his
statement, former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, also issued a controversial
statement imploring Mr Buhari to give young Nigerians opportunities to rule.
Mr Babangida’s letter later ignited a series of
controversies with the former military ruler reportedly issuing a
disclaimer.His media aide, Kassim Afegbua, was also declared wanted by the
Nigerian police.
On Thursday, Mr Tinubu said letters written by
some persons were ‘political’.
He said, “I want the economic minister to
please give us a data, first quarter of year 2012 and for their 16 years.
“I remember my grandmother used to send me to a
letter writer in the post office of those days and near the magistrate court.
So somebody is writing letters these days, a letter of politics, as if they’ve
never been there before. Bad belle letters.”
But in his reaction at the time, Mr Tinubu said
both Messrs Obasanjo and Babangida are retired politicians whose interventions
should be ignored.
“We should let our former presidents join
retirees’ club and take pensions but they can participate in our politics if
they are interested,” the former Lagos State governor had said at the time.
“It is
a free world but this freedom is not served a la carte . They should allow us
to move our country forward.”
On Thursday, Mr Tinubu said he was “not
interested in the letters”, adding that it was important for the government to
focus on its developmental plans.
“We want to focus. I don’t want to address that
one today. I’ve gotten the most beautiful birthday present I needed, and I am
happy,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment