Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nominee for president in the 2023 election, has said he has never abandoned President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku said this in response to a charge that he betrayed Tinubu by asking Chicago State University (CSU) for the President’s academic records on Thursday at a World Press Conference in Abuja.
When he was announced as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2007 in Lagos, the PDP presidential candidate claimed he declined to choose Tinubu as his running mate.
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Atiku claimed that President Tinubu felt betrayed since he declined to pick him as his running partner and that, as a result, they drifted apart politically.
He said, “I beg to disagree (on betrayal allegation) with Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, it is true that in 2007 we came together to form an alliance in Lagos, and at the convention, I contested and got the ticket. After I got the ticket, he sent about 5 or 6 seniors – some of them are here – I can even name them, but I don’t want to embarrass them.
“They met me and said to me that Bola wanted to be my running mate. I said to them, gentlemen, you’re all old enough, and apparently, virtually all of you are Christians’ with the exception of one person. What will be your reaction to having a Muslim-Muslim ticket?
“All of them said we totally objected to it, and I said, why didn’t you tell him when he was giving you the message that look, Tinubu, the message you’re sending us, we don’t seem to agree with you on it (Muslim-Muslim ticket). Why are you coming then to me? And that was the end of our political relationship. We broke away, so what is the ground for him to say that I betrayed him?
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“Till today, I won’t do a Muslim-Muslim ticket; I don’t have to be president; we are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious people, and our government must reflect our diversity, and our composition must reflect the same.”
Atiku said that rather than betraying the president, he stood up to President Olusegun Obasanjo, his then-principal, and made sure that Lagos State was spared from the political tsunami of 2003.
“Those of you who are old enough will also remember that in 2003, the PDP took over all the South-Western states, with the exception of Lagos.
“I stood between Obasanjo and himself (Tinubu), and I said no, you (Obasanjo) can’t take over Lagos. Leave it, and he (Obasanjo) left it. So, who is indebted to whom? Is it me or Bola Ahmed Tinubu? I vehemently deny that I stabbed Tinubu in the back.
“There are other things which I will not want to go into,” the former Vice President said.
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