By Abiola Olawale
Former Nigerian Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has expressed disapproval at s comment credited to incumbent Vice President, Kashim Shettima, which asserted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assisted him politically.
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) strongly criticized Shettima, urging him to refrain from making comments on historical events for which he lacks sufficient knowledge.
Shettima while speaking during the inauguration of the Third Expanded National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Business Clinics in Ado-Ekiti, said Atiku used to run to Tinubu’s house to seek political goodwill when he was being prosecuted by the PDP.
According to the Vice President, Tinubu’s residence in Bourdillon provided refuge for Atiku when he was reportedly facing harassment, intimidation, dehumanization, and expulsion from the PDP.
In his reaction, Atiku through his media aide, Paul Ibe, said it was he who helped Tinubu’s political career when he was the Governor of Lagos State.
In the statement issued on Sunday, Ibe said: “Truth be told, it was Tinubu that benefited immensely from Atiku’s goodwill.
“But for Atiku’s support, hinged on his pro-democracy instincts and rule of law, Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos would have been rough with a wide possibility of termination of his political career.
“For some time, and especially leading up to the 2023 election, there has been a deliberate attempt to distort the history of the politics of the early 4th Republic by ascribing the AC, the political platform that Atiku ran in 2007 as Tinubu’s party.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. Vice President Shettima, obviously carried away with the euphoria of the unveiling of his official residence as Vice President, repeated the same lie.
“Shettima needs to be reminded that Atiku did not run under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), but Action Congress (AC).
AC came out of a coalition of ACD (Advance Congress of Democrats), formed by mainly PDM members and other associates and Tinubu’s faction of AD.
“Moreover, Tinubu was not in a position to lend the platform to Atiku as erroneously suggested, as he (Atiku) was nominated by all the delegates from all the states.
“The delegates to the primaries of the election that threw up the former Vice President as the party’s presidential candidate included Atiku Abubakar himself, Lawal Keita, Amb. Yahaya Kwande, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Alexis Anjelica, Titi Ajanaku, former Governor Rasheed Ladoja, Chief Tom Ikimi, and Chief Dapo Sarumi.
Others were Chief Sergeant Awuse, Alhaji Lawan, Dr Chris Ngige, Prof Ango Abdullahi, Dr Farouk Abdul Azeez, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Ejiofor Onyia, and Dr Iyorchia Ayu, among others.
“From the Tinubu’s Alliance for Democracy were Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Segun Osoba, Chief Adebayo Adefarati, and Chief Bisi Akande, among others.
“It will be appropriate for Vice President Shettima to refrain from making statements on subject matters on which he knows little or nothing about.”
