Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused Bola Tinubu of attempting to run a Muslim-Muslim ticket by lobbying to be a vice president to President Muhammadu Buhari some years ago.
The two men are fighting to become President in 2023.
Atiku’s latest outburst came after Tinubu decided to run with Senator Kashim Shettima on a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Atiku spoke in a statement by Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, while reacting Tinubu’s claim that the PDP presidential candidate has lost moral comapass.
The statement read: “We would also like to remind Nigerians that even though multiple sources have testified that Bola Tinubu desperately lobbied to be made Buhari’s deputy in a Muslim-Muslim ticket, Bola Tinubu himself denied this on June 22, 2022, and instead accused President Buhari of offering him the position of Vice President.
“Which is exactly the same false allegation he has made against Atiku Abubakar. This is a pattern of behaviour. Not owning up to his actions.
“Nigerians may want to note that on 14 September, 2005, the then US Consul General, Brian L. Browne, drafted a memo, leaked via Wikileaks, wherein he stated that Bola Tinubu was scheming to be a running mate to either Atiku Abubakar or Muhammadu Buhari.
“This is further historically corroborated by the subsequent political history of Nigeria. Biographers of President Muhammadu Buhari have variously recounted how that Bola Tinubu made the same request of then Presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
“In his 2016 authorised biography of President Muhammadu Buhari titled ‘Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria’, Professor John Paden, an American, wrote about the issue as follows: “Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and political ‘godfather’ of the South-West geopolitical zone, felt he should be the vice-presidential candidate.”
In reaction, Tinubu, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga said: “We should not lose sight of the issue: Atiku sought to put himself on a religious higher ground by pretending to hate same faith ticket, citing most erroneously how he rejected Asiwaju as running mate in 2007.
“Asiwaju said it didn’t happen as he said. It was rather Atiku who offered him the post, which he rejected.
“We will like to restate that Atiku is now merely making a politically convenient and opportunistic argument, trying to fault our Tinubu-Shettima ticket using the emotive issue of religion.
“Our ticket is not about religion. It’s about two men, two Nigerians with track records in their various states, with verified competence and strength of character, who are coming to help fix our nation’s problems of insecurity, the economy and infrastructure.
“These problems did not begin seven years ago. The foundation was laid in 16 years of PDP mismanagement of our country’s commonwealth.”