Kogi state Governor Yahaya Bello has reaffirmed his 100 percent support to the presidential project of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governor, who stated this in an interview with the Channels Television Sunday night, debunked the report in a section of the media that he had withdrawn from Tinubu campaign project.
A media house (not Blueprint) had reported that Bello withdrew from the APC-Presidential Campaign Council where he currently serves as the national youth coordinator.
The report said the alleged withdrawal was because Tinubu is supporting Hon James Faleke, the secretary of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) as Bello’s successor, a development the governor was believed to have seen as a threat to his political interest.
Bello kicks
Expressing shock at the report, the governor described it as “most unfortunate and appealed to journalists to live up to their responsibility, as well as appealed to law enforcement agencies to investigate the matter.”
Taking a strong exception to the report, the governor called on the media house to tender a public apology within 24 hours or face litigation.
Bello said: “I remain very supportive, ardent supporter, mobiliser, campaigner and driver of both our leader and presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the flagbearer of our great party, the All Progressives Congress and my own brother His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima.
“These are president and vice president-in-waiting. Of course, every Nigerian knows that and as far as this election is concerned, because of the demography I represent in this country even across the globe.
“Of course, you can come up with fake news, I don’t know why the media house should allow themselves to be dragged into this kind of messy situation.
“I expect the media house to retract that publication and tender public apology within 24 hours; else my lawyers are capable of litigation.”
He described himself as a major party stakeholder, adding that starting from when he became governor, he had diligently delivered on any task given to him by the party.
Bello said although he contested for the primaries but God Almighty gave it to the party leader, Senator Tinubu and added that he was one of the first persons to endorse the former Lagos state governor after his emergence.
He recalled mobilising 41 million members comprising youth, women and people with special needs.
He said: “I contested for this particular election and God Almighty gave it to our leader and president-in-the waiting and I learnt from him because he is a general of the game. Ever since that happened, I’m the first person that came out openly to endorse him, to start working for him even before he reached out to me….”
Bello said he had done so much for the party even in the task of mobilising youth across the country both “in the open and in the secret.
“Everybody knows that I travel by road in order to connect with the youth, in order that I connect with Nigerians.”
He stated that Nigerians believed in him because of his strength of character as well as his ability to stand on whatever he believed in.
The governor recalled how he “converted Kogi state 100 percent from PDP to APC” following his emergence as governor of the state, assuring that the candidacy of Tinubu and Shettima would be delivered overwhelmingly.
“It is going to supersonic and it would be a landslide for our candidates and for our party and all of our candidates across board from top to bottom,” he said.
Rivalry with Faleke?
He also dismissed the purported rivalry between himself and Faleke, saying he considered the federal lawmaker as a brother and would work harmoniously with him to ensure victory for the party.
Asked whether he would work for the lawmaker in the next gubernatorial election, the governor said “the election is still far away and when we get to the bridge, we will know how to cross it.”
Ohinoyi query
Commenting on his query to the traditional ruler of Ebiraland, HRH Dr Ado Ibrahim, over the monarch’s absence during President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the state, the governor stated that the Ohinoyi is his respected and revered uncle, but that he had to separate personal relationship from issue of governance.
He described as incorrect the rumour that the royal father didn’t like him, saying “if a father doesn’t like his son, who else does he like?”
Governor Bello noted that those not happy with his administration and his numerous achievements were those labelling him an autocratic leader.
On the water crisis in the state, he said the state had lost so much infrastructure during the flood, adding that payment of compensation was still ongoing.
APC faults report
Also, faulting the report, the APC dismissed the reported withdrawal of the governor as false.
In a statement signed by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the party described the report as the handiwork of opposition trying to create a row between the two political gladiators from the state.
The statement read in full: “Our attention has been drawn to a front page report in Sunday Tribune of today, January 22, 2023, that the Governor of Kogi State and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, His Excellency, Yahaya Bello, has “tactically” withdrawn support for our Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over imagined political permutations on the Kogi State Governorship election scheduled for November.
“The story is maliciously false and a figment of the imagination of its author and sponsors.
“Governor Yahaya Bello, who serves as the National Youth Coordinator of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, is a solid, resourceful and committed campaigner for our Party’s Candidate, leading a massively successful outreach to youth voters across the country.
“This fake news, ostensibly intended to float an imagined rift between Governor Yahaya Bello and Honourable James Faleke, Secretary of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, is the desperate and disgraceful conjecture of opposition elements unsettled by our Party’s giant campaign strides. Both loyal Party men are unquestionably committed and working tirelessly for the resounding victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in next month’s presidential election.
“We urge our Party compatriots and all Nigerians to disregard this fake news.”
‘Obi, Atiku, Kwankwaso as election merchants’
Meanwhile, the ruling APC has described the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) , Peter Obi, as an “election merchant” lacking capacity to resolve some of the challenges facing Nigeria.
It said Obi lacked ideological standpoint that can bring him close to the working class, which is the primary constituency of his current political party-the Labour Party.
In a statement released Sunday in Abuja and signed by the APC National Vice Chairman (North-west) Mallam Salihu Moh Lukman, APC said any politician with the characteristics of changing political parties for the purpose of contesting elections, such a person is not what Nigeria needed today.
Lukman, who was responding to a question he was asked by a friend of his on whether he was working for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, said he found such enquiry insulting.
The former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) said, “out of all the leading candidates, the only one that has never left his party to any party is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is the only one that although he has been a national political leader since he left office as Governor of Lagos State in 2007 that is presenting himself for the first time as a Presidential candidate for the 2023 elections.”
The statement said: “In terms of the person of Mr. Peter Obi, so far, his characteristics is that of a typical Nigerian politician who is more of an election merchant presenting himself every four years for election, even if it means changing political party.
“Being an election merchant connotes obvious lack of commitment and discipline to be loyal to any political party. This partly explains why Mr. Obi moved from All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and now LP between 2015 and now.
“What is the guarantee that his candidature of LP also bears a commitment to develop the LP and get it to overcome all its challenges. Noting that it is a public knowledge that LP has been embroiled in leadership crisis, how is Mr. Obi using his campaign to negotiate the resolution of LP crisis. From a distant point of view, Mr. Obi is in fact indifferent to the crisis facing LP.
“Beyond being indifferent, Mr. Obi is clearly alien to any ideological standpoint that can bring him close to the working class, which is the primary constituency of LP. Some of us are privileged to have been intellectually and organically connected to that constituency. In fact, I am privileged to have managed the project which conceived and facilitated the initial negotiation between Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its partners, notably civil society, which produced the LP in 2003.
“While it is important to recognise the legitimate disappointment of Nigerians with our leaders and the state of the nation, it will remain a fallacy to imagine that a simple choice of a typical election merchant can resolve Nigeria’s challenges.
“Not just Peter Obi, any other politician with the characteristics of changing political parties for the purpose of contesting elections, such a person is not what Nigeria need today. Without prejudice to my respect for Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, they are both in the same category with Mr. Obi. Alh. Atiku has been either a Presidential candidate or aspirant in every election in different parties since 2007. Sen. Kwankwaso has moved from PDP to APC, back to PDP between 2015 and 2019, before finally forming New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in 2022 and present himself as the Presidential candidate of the party for 2023 election.”
The APC chieftain said Tinubu is the only contestant who together with other leaders of APC envisioned the political roadmap for the defeat of PDP.
“The emergence of Asiwaju as the Presidential candidate of APC was the product of open internal contest in APC. Unlike most of the Presidential candidates of the other opposition parties, Asiwaju was not a product of imposition. It can also be argued that Alh. Atiku also won PDP primary. However, the difference between Asiwaju and Alh. Atiku is the ability to successfully negotiate and win the support of other party leaders who contested against him. Today, all those who contested against Asiwaju in APC are working for his victory.
“Many of us in APC are supporting Asiwaju as part of our ongoing campaign to continue to build the APC as a progressive party, capable of producing accountable elected representatives at all levels. We do so with full confidence that Asiwaju will build on the legacy of President Buhari, which also includes respecting internal debate and contestation within the APC. APC is the only party today in Nigeria that permit internal debate and contestations,” the party chieftain said.
