All Progressives Congress (APC) leader and former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has declared that the reckless and statue-molding Imo State Governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha misrepresented his recent comments on the party’s nomination process. Tinubu who was instrumental to the winning of the APC in 2015 said he never underrated the importance of governors in the party’s nomination process.
Tinubu who is better known by Lagosians as Jagaban said what he told journalists in Akure, which Okorocha turned upside down was that he canvassed that the APC should not go the way of the PDP by deciding on automatic ticket for any candidate if the party wants to practice true democracy. Recall that last month, Okorocha had said all the governors in the country, save for two, had endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari for re-election, thus implying the governors had given the president an automatic ticket for 2019.
Tinubu’s Media Adviser, Mr. Tunde Rahman, who clarified his principal’s position said, “We note Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha’s statement. “It is important that the record of what Asiwaju Tinubu said when approached by journalists during his last visit to Akure is accurate. Thus, I make this statement in the hope of clarifying a misinterpretation that seems to have taken hold in some quarters. I was at the interview session. Asiwaju never said anything that could be interpreted as meaning or even implying the governors are irrelevant or insignificant to the party’s nomination process. As a former governor and a leading statesman within the party, such words would never come from him.”
Continuing, Rahman added, “Moreover, Asiwaju is a democrat who believes that the open and democratic processes of the APC, which led to the nomination of President Buhari in the first instance, have served the party well and have helped distinguish the APC from other parties where fairness and internal democracy are rare commodities. Every individual has a right to endorse or support a candidate of his choosing. What Asiwaju said at that encounter and still canvasses is that the APC should not mimic the PDP’s penchant for short-circuiting internal democracy by promoting the idea of an automatic ticket. The exercise of internal democracy and honoring the letter and spirit of party rules can only strengthen the party and enthuse its members.”
