Tinubu: Govs may be influential but APC must be careful not to go the way of PDP

Acclaimed leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has cautioned that the party must be careful not to commit the mistake of promoting an automatic ticket just like the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

Tinubu stated this in reaction to a statement credited to Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, in which he insinuated that the former Lagos State governor was crying more than the bereaved.

Okorocha had made the statement in response to media reports that Tinubu had, during an interview in Akure, the Ondo State capital, frowned at APC governors’ endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari as the party’s sole candidate in 2019, allegedly describing the governors as being irrelevant and insignificant to the party’s nomination process.

But in his reaction to Okorocha’s attack, Tinubu clarified in a statement on Monday in Lagos, released by his Media Adviser, Mr. Tunde Rahman, that he never during the interview said what he was quoted as saying.

Acknowledging that governors could be influential, the statement read, “The APC Governors are essential and important voices in the party. Asiwaju values and respects each one of them and gives their individual and collective opinions much weight. Yet, in the exercise of our opinions and support for candidates, we all must be guided and never lose clear sight to the democratic ideals that separate the APC from the other parties.”

“We note Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha’s statement. It is important that the record of what Asiwaju Tinubu said when approached by journalists during his last visit to Akure is accurate. Thus, I make this statement in the hope of clarifying a misinterpretation that seems to have taken hold in some quarters.

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“I was at the interview session. Asiwaju never said anything that could be interpreted as meaning or even implying the governors are irrelevant or insignificant to the party’s nomination process. As a former governor and a leading statesman within the party, such words would never come from him.

“Moreover, Asiwaju is a democrat who believes that the open and democratic processes of the APC, which led to the nomination of President Buhari in the first instance, have served the party well and has helped distinguish APC from PDP and other parties where fairness and internal democracy are rare commodities.

“Every individual has a right to endorse or support a candidate of his choosing. What Asiwaju said at that encounter and still canvasses is that the APC should not mimic the PDP’s penchant for short-circuiting internal democracy by promoting the idea of an automatic ticket. The exercise of internal democracy and honoring the letter and spirit of party rules can only strengthen the party and enthuse its members.

“APC’s all-inclusive philosophy was not devised today. It had been with the party since its creation. It was this spirit, which we believe, attracted fellow progressives and those who genuinely believe in democracy in all of its aspects to the party. Asiwaju includes Governor Okorocha in this group.

“This is the essence of what Asiwaju said that day in Akure. He merely asked APC members to adhere to the democratic path that thus far has served the party so well. There can be no true dispute with such a sentiment”.

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