2023: Nothing stops a kingmaker from becoming king, says Tinubu

National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, says nothing stops a kingmaker from becoming a king.

National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, says nothing stops a kingmaker from becoming a king.

He said this in an interactive session with State House reporters after meeting the president at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

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When the former governor of Lagos State was asked whether he had informed the President who recently said he did not want to divulge his favorite for the APC 2023 presidential ticket about his ambition as some Nigerians had continued to urge him to come out and contest, he replied: “I answer that with categorical yes. I have informed the President of my intention but I have not informed Nigerians yet. I’m still consulting. And I have no problem consulting.

“And I have not set a parameter of limitation to the extent of how many people will I consult. You will soon hear, all you want to hear is the categorical declaration. You have gotten that truth from me that I have informed Mr President of my ambition, and you don’t expect more answers than that.”

When probed further about the President’s response to his his ambition, the Jagaban Borgu said: “That’s our business. He is a democrat. He didn’t ask me to stop. He didn’t ask me not to attempt and pursue my ambition, is a lifelong ambition. So, why do I expect him to say more than that? You are running a democratic dispensation, and you must adopt the principles and the values and the virtues of democracy. That’s it.”

Tinubu, while reacting to a question that sought his views on a potential race between himself, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State in view of the presence of various support groups drumming support for them, said he would not discuss personality for now.

He, however, used the opportunity to speak on his achievements as governor of Lagos State and that of President Buhari.

He said: “I don’t want to discuss individuals now. I must discuss myself. I have the confidence, the vision, the capacity to rule, build on the foundation of Mr. President, and turn Nigeria better. I’ve have done that with is yielding commitment in Lagos State. You’ve seen that experience and the capacity to turn things around and that is what we are doing.

“You know, the confusion, the drift of the past in PDP is being corrected. And you can’t take away from that. As we are today, go back to the data on how many barrels of oil were we producing when we first came in and what it is today. We cannot even at the time we came in, we did not pay the counterpart funds to start our rail line.

“Today, you enjoy the comfort of having rail from Lagos to Ibadan, you have the Kaduna and you have the one for Kano State on the aggressive pipeline, you see excellent infrastructure. I just came from Azare and I have seen good roads, the carnage of dying on motor vehicles is reducing except you know, lack of compliance with a lot of Nigerian drivers and VIOs. Let us think back, let us be intellectually inquisitive as to the past and the present and what the future holds for Nigeria.”