“Tinubu tried to rock the boat when he was denied Buhari’s vice Presidency. He thinks every other person could behave his way. If I wanted to contest under the APC as president, I could have done so and only the votes could have produced a winner," Tambuwal said.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has sensationally claimed that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), attempted to "rock the boat" in the lead-up to the 2015 presidential election when he didn't emerge President Muhammadu Buhari's running mate as he wished.
Tambuwal said this on Monday while reacting to Bola Tinubu’s statement that he doesn’t have the “stomach to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari in a primary".
In Sunday's statement, entitled ‘They Go Away Because We Go The Right Way’, Tinubu had given reasons for Tambuwal’s defection from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
"Governor Tambuwal’s exit can be distilled to one cause," Tinubu had said.
"He covets the presidency. However, he had not the stomach to challenge President Buhari in a primary. Tambuwal felt further insulted that he would be compelled to face a direct primary just to retain the governorship nomination. But for the promise made by PDP headliners like Rivers State Governor Wike that he would have the PDP presidential nomination, Tambuwal would not have left. His exit had nothing to do with governance of the nation. It was about forging a personal ambition predicated on the defeat of progressive reform not the advancement of it.”
However, in a response published on Monday via the Twitter handle of the Sokoto Government House, @SokotoGovtHouse, Tambuwal refuted Tinubu’s claims on the reason for his defection, stating that he could challenge Buhari in the party’s presidential primary had he remained in the APC.[story_link align="left"]62148[/story_link]
The tweet read: “If I wanted to and if the Presidency is why Ahmed Tinubu thinks I defected, I could contest with President Buhari under the APC. I have what it takes to have contested with Mr. President.
“I adduced reasons of my defection to the PDP. The reasons are still on record. Automatic ticket by the APC is certainly not part of that.”
According to Tambuwal, not only had Tinubu tried to “rock the boat” when he was denied the vice-presidential slot during the last election, his statement on his defection was a reference to the notion that the APC didn’t provide level-playing field for its members, and denied them “their right to internal democracy”.
Another tweet read: “In any case, Tinubu is confessing that there is no level-playing ground for all members of the APC; that there is no internal democracy in it and that some people were denied their right to internal democracy.
“Tinubu tried to rock the boat when he was denied Buhari’s vice Presidency. He thinks every other person could behave his way. If I wanted to contest under the APC as president, I could have done so and only the votes could have produced a winner.”