A national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has said the reported meeting by some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Dubai to strategize on how to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari will fail.
The presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, is currently in Dubai and was reported to have been holding series of meetings with high ranking members of the party to adopt best ways to unseat Mr Buhari.
Speaking Wednesday, after meeting with Mr Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Mr Tinubu said, “We don’t fear, whether it’s in the jungle, or it’s in Dubai or it’s in Abu Dhabi, people are free to meet and strategize in any way. But we are not going back to the illusion of the PDP.”
The former governor of Lagos State said he believes it is not possible for Nigerians to return the PDP to power.
The PDP governed Nigeria for 16 years from 1999 before losing the 2015 general election to the APC.
Speaking with State House correspondents, Mr Tinubu said APC’s style of governance is what is good for Nigeria.
“They say slow and steady wins the race; we inherited that from our forefathers and knowledgeable people. We can’t go back to the pit that we inherited for 16 years. They can strategize from anywhere but a leopard cannot change its skin,” he said.
Speaking on what he discussed with the president, Mr Tinubu said “the meeting is about the nation, the country, our people, peace, stability and economic progress.”
Meanwhile, Tinubu also offered his support to the national chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, who is under pressure from some of the party’s governors to vacate his position
Recall that reported how Oshiomhole, who earlier met with Buhari on Wednesday, had said only about three of the APC’s 23 governors were against him. The embattled party chairman, however, got the support of Mr Tinubu.
“We all have to respect the party supremacy. You were all here when we had the congress, we elected the new executives at the convention,” Tinubu said.
“The NEC was formed and we surrendered – to avoid conflict, to avoid domination, to avoid abuses of power – we surrendered our rights, all rights to the National Working Committee headed by Adams Oshiomhole.”
Those angling to remove Mr Oshiomhole accuse him of mishandling the primaries recently held to pick candidates of the party for the 2019 elections.
