By Meletus EZE
A pressure group, Vote for Atiku Initiative, has advised the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to show gratitude to the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for grooming him to become what he currently is in politics.
The group maintained that but for Atiku, Tinubu would have sunk into political oblivion 16 years ago.
“If not for Atiku, Tinubu would have sunk into political oblivion since 2003,” the group said.
The group frowned on the way the APC leader had been attacking Atiku since the campaigns started.
The National Chairman of the group, Dr Ifeanyi Maduako, on Friday in Owerri, said that Atiku saved Tinubu in 2003, when all the South-West governors except him (Tinubu), could not return to office.
He said, “I want to remind Tinubu that it was Atiku as the then Vice President, who saved him from that political hurricane because of the personal love and friendship between them.
“I want to also remind Tinubu that it was Atiku that saved him from defeat in 2003. This was not because of religious or regional/zonal sentiments.
“After all, Tinubu was not the only Muslim governor during the period. The late Lam Adesina and Chief Bisi Akande were also Muslims, but Atiku left them and saved Tinubu due to personal love and friendship.”
Maduako, however, disagreed with Tinubu’s recent remarks that Atiku was corrupt.
“If Atiku is corrupt as he and the APC have alleged, why did he give Atiku the presidential ticket of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, which Tinubu controlled in 2007 to contest for the Presidency of the country?
“Why did Tinubu and the APC refuse to brand Atiku as corrupt throughout the time he was an APC member?” Maduako asked.——Punch
