2023 Presidency: Tinubu Draws Battle Line With Buhari

<h4>2023 Presidency<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that for the second time within seven months&comma; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu&comma; the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress&comma; APC&comma; in the 2023 general elections&comma; had reasons to give President Muhammadu Buhari the full length of his tongue&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;And on each occasion&comma; the former governor of Lagos State found Abeokuta&comma; the capital of Ogun State to tongue lash and dresses down President Buhari who he subtly accuses of being a clog on his presidential aspiration&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;First was an exultant&comma; auspicious gathering of the APC party members in Abeokuta on June 3&comma; 2022&comma; with Tinubu on the campaign trail to garner support from the delegates in the party’s primary&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He&comma; without reservations&comma; decided to publicly share some truths with the audience about his role in the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as President&period; It was a gathering of his kinsmen&semi; an arena of maximum comfort for him&period; He threw away all pretensions to decorum and political correctness and went &OpenCurlyQuote;native’&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He deployed the best of Yoruba idioms laced with biting sarcasm in a way that even Wole Soyinka&comma; the Master of the English language universe&comma; would have found impossible to translate adequately&period; Tinubu did not only want his kith and kin to hear him&comma; he wanted them to feel him from their underbellies with nothing lost in translation&period; He made revelations after revelations concerning the jostling for positions in APC&comma; going back to its roots in the defunct Alliance for Democracy&comma; and how he made personal sacrifices to help nurture and grow the party to become the juggernaut that it is today&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;So vexatious were the outpourings of Tinubu that <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsexpressngr&period;com&sol;">Senator Abdullahi Adamu&comma; the national chairman of APC&comma;<&sol;a> cautioned and warned him to be careful or face the wrath of the party&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Subsequently&comma; Tinubu won the primary election and became the party’s candidate&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; the campaigns&comma; as observed by public affairs analysts&comma; are not enjoying the robust contributions of President Buhari&comma; who seems to be cold and slow in making public affirmative statements to support his party’s candidates&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;On one occasion&comma; he told an APC gathering in Adamawa State not to vote for anyone with fraudulent antecedence&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But given that lots of individuals&comma; especially from the opposition camps&comma; have variously accused Tinubu of fraudulent past&comma; Buhari’s statement was interpreted to mean a campaign against Tinubu&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Expectedly&comma; Tinubu &comma;on Wednesday&comma; found another opportunity to publicly accuse President Buhari of conniving with his opponents to cause his failure on February 25&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He alleged that there are plans to scuttle the 2023 general elections through fuel scarcity and naira redesign&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Tinubu spoke in Abeokuta&comma; Ogun State&comma; during the APC presidential campaign&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They don’t want this election to hold&period; They want to sabotage it&period; Will you allow them&quest;”&comma; Tinubu asked the teeming supporters at the MKO Abiola stadium&comma; Kuto&comma; Abeokuta&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The former Lagos Governor said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They have started coming up with the issue of &OpenCurlyQuote;no fuel&period;’<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If you like increase price of fuel&comma; hide the fuel or change the ink on the naira notes&comma; we will win the election&comma;” he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;These outbursts&comma; according to an APC stalwart&comma; Dr&period; Douglas Paul who spoke to OpenLife Thursday afternoon&comma; are direct attacks on President Buhari&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Who ordered and approved Naira redesign&quest; Was it not President Buhari&quest; Who is the Minister of Petroleum&quest; Is it not President Buhari&quest; As Tinubu was making the statement in Abeokuta&comma; was he not aware that Buhari had set up a team headed by himself to address the issue of scarcity&quest; Therefore&comma; you can understand that his Abeokuta attack was a direct attack on Buhari because the issues he raised are issues that have Buhari’s signature&comma;” he stated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;19429" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-19429" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-19429" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;01&sol;Gbajabiamila&period;&period;&period;&period;-300x239&period;jpg" alt&equals;"2023 Presidency" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"239" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-19429" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>House Speaker&comma; Gbajabiamila<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;