Tinubu Asked To be My Running Mate In 2007 – Atiku

Tinubu Asked To be My Running Mate In 2007 – Atiku

Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president, has revealed that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the rulling All Progressives Congress (APC), requested to be his vice-presidential candidate in the 2007 presidential election.

Tinubu made the proposal on his own, according to Abubakar, as one of the criteria for receiving the party’s presidential ticket in 2007.

He stated this during a meeting with members of the party’s Board of Trustees in Abuja on Tuesday.

In order to engage the South East in political involvement or political authority, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member announced that he declined the requirement and picked Senator Ben Obi as his running partner instead.

Even though he’s not opposed to rotating the office, the former vice president believes it is now the appropriate time for him to take over as president since he has paid his dues.

He said:

“In the party, we invented and formulated this zoning policy simply because we wanted every part of this country to have a sense of belonging and I personally have paid my dues on the issue of zoning.

“Many of you were members of our government when all the PDP governors came in 2003 and said I should run and I said no. We have agreed that power should remain in the south-west, Why should I?

“Some of those governors that supported me, some of them went to jail, some of them were kicked out of their offices, we made sure that we kept the policy. Therefore, you cannot come and try to imply that the PDP has not been following the zoning policy.

“Some say the south-east has not been given the chance. When I joined the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which my friend Bola (Tinubu) set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket, one of which was that I should make him the vice-president.

“I said no, ‘I’m not going to make you vice-president,’ instead, I took senator Ben Obi. So there is absolutely no reason they should say that there is a deliberate attempt to exclude the south-east in political participation or power-sharing.

“So I thought I should disabuse your mind and of course, as an enlightened political class, I don’t think there’s any deliberate policy to exclude anybody in this country.”