Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and presidential hopeful, says without him, President Muhammadu Buhari wouldn’t have won the presidential election in 2015.

Tinubu spoke on Thursday at a meeting with APC delegates in Ogun state.

Describing the election as a “battle”, Tinubu also spoke on how he “surrendered” the vice-presidential ticket to Yemi Osinbajo, when concerns were raised over a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the APC.

“Buhari asked me to be his running mate, but Saraki campaigned against a Muslim-Muslim ticket. He felt it would affect his ambition to be senate president. The senate president could not be a Muslim as well. They rose against it. I said ‘I have someone that’s a Christian and I will nominate him. This party must not scatter’. And I nominated him (Osinbajo). That’s the truth,” Tinubu said in Yoruba.

“They asked me to bring three names. Yemi Cardoso was number one. Wale Edun was number two, Yemi Osinbajo was number three. I decided to drop just one name since I was surrendering my right. Buhari agreed to this and I dropped Yemi Osinbajo’s name.

“You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this. It’s my time now.

“If not for me that led the battlefront, Buhari wouldn’t have won. He contested first, second and third time, but lost. He even said on television that he won’t contest again.

“But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him ‘you would contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matter of the Yoruba’. Since he has been elected, I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get a contract.

“This time, it’s Yoruba turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my turn.”

Speaking further, Tinubu took a swipe at Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun state.

Tinubu said APC did not want to give the governorship ticket to Abiodun in the build-up to the 2019 polls.

There was crisis in the APC prior to the 2019 elections over the refusal of Ibikunle Amosun, who was completing his second term as governor of Ogun at the time, to support Abiodun as his successor.

Amosun, who had supported another aspirant, was later suspended by the party.

Speaking on the circumstances surrounding the issue at the time, Tinubu said he did much to ensure the success of Abiodun at the polls.

“That one (referring to Abiodun) that is sitting down here, could he have become governor without me? We were all in the stadium where they tore all the posters. Even the candidacy of the party, they didn’t want to give it to him,” the APC chieftain said in Yoruba.

“It’s been over 25 years that I have been serving them. This one sitting at my back, Dapo, could he have become a governor if not for me?

“If he wants to hear, his life will be long. If he wants to meet God in his position, he would admit that he wouldn’t have become governor if not for God and I.”

The Cable