A pressure group, Vote for Atiku Initiative, has advised the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to show gratitude to the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate for the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for grooming him to become what he currently is in politics.
The National Chairman of the group, Dr. Ifeanyi Maduako, said this on Friday in Owerri, Imo State.
Maduako said but for Abubakar, Tinubu would have sunk into political oblivion 16 years ago.
He said Abubakar saved Tinubu in 2003 when all 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 disagreed with Tinubu’s position that Abubakar is corrupt.
He said: “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?”
On Tinubu’s allegation that Abubakar failed to help Lagos State when former President Olusegun Obasanjo withheld the state’s allocation at the twilight of his tenure, Maduako said it was not the fault of the former Vice President, adding: “Moreover, Atiku and Obasanjo had fallen out at the time and he (Atiku) was shut out of government completely.
“So, how could Atiku have helped in that circumstance when he (Atiku) himself was seriously embattled?
“Over the years, even in 2014 APC presidential primaries, Tinubu ensured that Atiku came a distant third position behind Muhammadu Buhari and the then Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State.
“The law of natural justice is calling on Tinubu to pay back Atiku’s benevolence and kind gesture to him over the years.”