Minister
of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has urged Nigerians to wait till
January 2022 for the National Leader of All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu,
to declare whether he will be running for president in 2023 or not.
He
stated this on Channels Television’s ‘Hard Copy’ programme aired on Friday
night which was monitored by JIRO MEDIA
Of
recent, posters and billboards advertising the rumoured presidential bid of
Tinubu who was Lagos governor from May 1999 to May 2007 have been seen in major
cities including Lagos and Abuja.
Though
Tinubu has yet to declare his intention to contest any office in 2023, there
have been reports and veiled indications that he might be interested in the
exalted seat.
It was had
earlier reported that the SouthWest Agenda 2023, a political movement
mobilising support for Tinubu to contest the 2023 presidential election, was
inaugurated in Lagos in October by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu,
and other party chieftains.
Tinubu,
who celebrated his 69th birthday in March 2021 and command an arguably large
following of political loyalists, has been reported to nurse presidential
ambition in 2023, even as political debates get intense for a Southern
President after the eight-year regime of the incumbent, Major General Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), who is from Katsina State, North-West Nigeria.
Some
groups and persons have also said aside from Tinubu, Vice-President Yemi
Osinbajo; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; and Fashola are equally capable
to be Nigeria’s President.
When
asked whether he is interested in becoming the President of Nigeria, Fashola
said, “It is a very tough responsibility, a very tough job; I don’t envy those
who have held that office and I don’t envy those who aspire to take it as
well.”
Asked
whether he is speaking for any aspirant come 2023, the minister said, “As far
as I am aware, nobody has said, ‘I want to be Nigeria’s President’. There are
people speaking for people. Nobody has come out, we are not at that stage yet.
“I
can venture out and say that I will speak for X or Y. Let the person come out
and say, ‘I want to serve Nigeria’.
“It
pains me sometimes when we see that very important job and responsibility to,
‘My people said’. I think the whole sense of it should be that I am able, I
have look at myself, give me your problem, you go to sleep’.”
On
whether he will support Tinubu’s rumoured 2023 presidential bid, the two-term
ex-governor of Lagos said, “I saw him last week, he didn’t tell me he is
running for office and to the best of my knowledge the last statement he made
on it is that people will know in January.”
Fashola
also said he has not asked Tinubu whether he is interested in the 2023
President or not. “No, I didn’t ask him, I just went to ask how was doing. He
has issued a statement that, ‘I will speak in January, so let us wait till
January,” he said.
Nice News please keep it up
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