News / politics

Osinbajo group to Tinubu: VP won’t step down for you

The umbrella organization of all pro-Yemi Osinbajo support groups, The Progressive Project, has said that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will not step down for the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress in the race for the 2023 presidential ticket.

The TPP Director of Operations, Alhaji Usman Aliyu Usman, stated this amid suggestion Osinbajo will step down for Tinubu ahead of the party’s primaries.

Usman said in a statement on Sunday that “some paid agents and other supporters who feel threatened by the candidature of Professor Osinbajo seem determined for a gutter fight which Osinbajo supporters cannot join”.

He said: “One of our visible supporters, Professor Olusola Adeyeye, a two-term Senator who represented Osun Central Senatorial District between 2011 to 2019 made some weighty statements about the APC presidential primaries on Saturday and by Sunday, really baseless and mischievous anti-Osinbajo statements began circulating. “Unfortunately, one of these came from Mr. Daniel Bwala, an aide to Deputy Senate President, Senator (Ovie) Omo-Agege who currently appears to moonlight as spokesman for the Bola Tinubu campaign.

“Specifically, without any proof, Mr. Bwala started circulating a video clip with claims that Professor Yemi Osinbajo is ‘allegedly planning to step down for Asiwaju’; Mr. Bwala had no evidence and he ought to know better than going to town with such.

“Without doubt, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is still riding high in the race and our decision not to interfere in some camps’ deliberate spread of illusion and untruths is only motivated by our genuine confidence in our candidate’s prospects.

“As stated long ago, no group linked to TPP will join any individual or group in playing gutter politics or smearing others but we need to unequivocally state that Professor Yemi Osinbajo is not contemplating any measure of capitulation to any candidate.

“While we are sworn to total allegiance to the Constitution, patriotic values and the spirit of good sportsmanship, we denounce the misleading information and unbecoming tricks that some supporters in other presidential candidates’ camps embrace so eagerly.

“We denounce too, the baseless ad unhelpful information …

News / politics

Tinubu demanded to be my vice president as ACN presidential candidate — Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on members of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party to be united in working towards the victory of party in 2023.

Abubakar spoke in an interactive session with BoT members to seek their support for his presidential aspiration in Abuja.

He said anything short of victory would not be good for the party.

He said that the 2023 general election offered the party the opportunity to return to power. He said: “I am worried and you should be worried too that if we do not win, it means we will be in opposition again for the next eight years.

“By the next eight years, I don’t know how many will be left in politics and it may even ultimately lead to the death of the party because people gravitate, particularly in developing countries, towards governments.

“Ordinary people naturally gravitate towards government.

“So this is a very, very crucial and historical moment in history, for our survival.

“I want you to think about it.

“We are now at a crucial moment in this country.

“Many of you here, it is either we retire together or we move on together.”

The former vice president said that PDP administration had from 1999 to 2007 had remarkable achievements that has not been matched by any subsequent administration.

Abubakar said that PDP would scored more votes in 2023 if the BoT members worked together.

He said: “Somebody said that we recorded 12 million votes during the last election.

“Those are not only my votes.

“Those were our votes.

“In achieving or recording those 11 million votes, it was all of us and I believe if we work together again, we can surpass those votes.”

Abubakar dismissed insinuations that he was working against the possible zoning of the PDP presidential ticket to the South East.

He said: “In the party, we invented and formulated this zoning policy simply because we wanted every part of this country to have a sense of belonging and I personally have …

News / politics

Osun Primary: Jagaban ‘house of commotion’

The gloves have been worn and the fight for who controls the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State promises to be bloody, literally.

The mud fight may have already been brought to the doorstep of National Leader of the party and presidential hopeful, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

If something is not urgently done to pull the combatants back from the brink, the center might hold no longer, both for Tinubu’s political family and his presidential ambition.

Sources close to the first layer of Tinubu’s political lieutenants told The Guardian that the maverick politician might face stiffer opposition to his presidential ambition from his supposed loyalists more than people outside his political caucus. Specifically, it was learnt that some of his core loyalists do not see him as “politically fit to govern the country apart from his rumored health challenges.”

And the seeming crack in the “Bourdillon school of politics” is said to be the chief reason many beneficiaries of his magnanimity are also gunning for the presidency or supporting another aspirant against their supposed leader.

It was gathered that while some governors in the country are planning to “retire” Tinubu from active politics by 2023, some other ‘enemies within’ are working round the clock to whittle down his political influence and stop his bid for the presidency.

But sources close to the former Lagos State governor said the gang-up against him is not new and expressed confidence that Tinubu will clinch the party’s presidential ticket and become Nigeria’s president by 2023.

One of them said: “Go and check the records, many politicians that worked against him in the past later came back to be his friend, and he was magnanimous enough to welcome them back with open arms. Those working against him now will soon know that they are political featherweights.”

Sources said the open vituperation by Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, against Tinubu in a video that has gone viral is mere child’s play compared to what would be coming out from his “loyalists” in the …