Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has finally bared his mind on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu..

“Let me tell you if you want to know; truly, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu supported me to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives using the ACN bloc in the House of Representatives. If you go today and dig out the records and subtract the number of ACN members that supported me and give it to Mulikat, she couldn’t have won. Go and do the mathematics.”

“I got the majority of the PDP; I got CPC, I got ANPP. Assuming that you go and take out the entire number of ACN members who supported me…and I am not saying that they didn’t support me; I am grateful, and I will remain eternally grateful, but I am giving you an idea of what happened.”

“Tinubu didn’t come out of the blues to say that he was supporting me. We sat down over four times for me to convince him on the viability of that project. We did the mathematics; he is a smart politician. He saw clearly that we were going to make it even without his support. We did the mathematics, he knows, he is alive.”

“I am not lying. Initially, he had given his blessings through Abike Dabiri and Jumoke Okoya-Thomas to Mulikat, but by the time we sat down and did the mathematics, he realised that he was going on a wild goose chase. So, he supported me, and I am grateful.”

“But you see, in politics, we had that understanding. We worked together for this country, the support he gave me, I am grateful. Till today in my political relationship with Bola Tinubu, he had never given me one naira; but that is not what is between him and I.”

“It was a political transaction and not financial, a purely political transaction, purely political engagement, political project that had a lifespan. When my tenure was expiring and as a leader in APC whether anyone liked it or not because I was number four at that time, and when Bola Tinubu was working towards bringing Femi, he never called me, quote me!”

“I initiated a meeting with Bola Tinubu on my own volition with Gov. Abdulaziz Yari; we went to him ‘this thing you are doing, you are not talking to us?’ He said I am sorry and that was when he “realised” that he needed to talk to us in his interest in Femi becoming Speaker. So, we sat down, and we agreed to sit down again, but he didn’t call us back until when it was getting late, and I initiated a meeting with him in Lagos.”

“I flew with some serving members of the House of Representatives and some incoming members of the House to Lagos and had a four-hour meeting with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Before we started, we intreated into an inner room and told members of the House of Representatives to tell him the truth between themselves and God Almighty if there should be election who would win between Femi and Dogara.”

“They took their turns, and including those close to him, they told him that if we should go into a free and fair process, that Dogara would win. When we retreated, I said: “Asiwaju, you have heard from my colleagues, but let me ask you what made you feel that you needed not to talk to me or invite me to come and discuss with me how someone should come and take over from me?” He said: “Aminu, I am sorry, I am sorry it was an oversight.”

“So, I said: Ökay, you have heard, what do you want? You want Femi as Speaker?” He said yes. I said: “Okay, I am not opposed to it, but let me tell you, we need to pair Femi and Dogara together as Speaker and Deputy Speaker.”

“If you want Femi, I can support Femi, he is my friend, but we have to make sure that Dogara is on the ticket as Deputy Speaker. We went back and forth, back and forth and we agreed. He said to me: “Aminu, is that the deal?”

“I said “that is the deal. I will go back and talk to Dogara.” We discussed about Senate President, and he said no, Bukola has not spoken to him, he has not done this and that. I said “no, Bukola has been to you three times and on each of those three times, he had briefed me, and you know how close Bukola and I are, so Asiwaju don’t tell me that.”

“I said to him: “You have spoken to an emir in the North for about 45 minutes that you want to take your pound of flesh because Bukola didn’t support you to become Vice-President and that he should not get Senate President.” He said: ‘Ah, how did you get to know?’ I told him the emir told me; you don’t know how close I am to that emir.”

“So, I said: “Asiwaju; I know what the game is. We had insisted that Bola Tinubu should not be running mate to Buhari. Buhari had already caved in, and we said that with Muslim-Muslim ticket, we could not win and that was my first offence.”

“That was my first offence with Tinubu, not this House of Representatives politics. That was also the offence by Bukola, offence by Yari. Was Rotimi also involved? Rotimi wanted it for himself. And that was my offence against him which is a different matter. So, I pleaded and pleaded and it got to the point that I left where I was seated and knelt before Asiwaju and held his knees and said ‘Asiwaju, I am begging you, I am appealing on behalf of Bukola, please forgive him for whatever sins.”

“He said, “Aminu, go back and sit down.” I told him we can resolve this issue and he said how? I said, “if you agree, Bukola can become Deputy Senate President,” he said no, no. Deputy to who? To Ahmad Lawan. I said I could go and talk to Bukola. And I told him my reasons why I was supporting Bukola.”

“I said outside my relationship with him (Saraki), I said in my presence, in the presence of God, in your study, you encouraged Bukola to go and become senator so that he could become Senate President. In my presence, only three of us with God! You Asiwaju, you did that. Two, I know his capacity, and we are very close, and I know he can provide leadership. Three, the governor I am taking over from is supporting Bukola, do you want me to start fighting him by going to support someone else? And there were some other factors.”

“I told him these are the reasons. Let me have something to go back with, let’s talk to Bukola let him take Deputy Senate President to Lawan, let Femi be Speaker, let Dogara be Deputy Speaker. We spent four hours in his office in Lagos. He gave me an indication that he had agreed but that Bukola should come and see him.”

“I went and told Bukola, go and see Asiwaju. Few weeks later, they came up with their mock primaries. When they said there was going to be mock primaries, the next thing I saw was that mock primaries had been held and Monguno had stepped down for Femi and that they had paired. And that George Akume and Ahmad Lawan had formed a ticket. This was in clear contradiction of the agreement.”

“Tinubu is alive! Meanwhile, I had called Dogara and told him of my conversation with Asiwaju and that in the interest of peace, I want you to make the sacrifice and that in any case, you are still growing. You cannot say Deputy Speaker is too small for you. Dogara didn’t argue with me; he said okay.”

“I called Femi; I told Femi Gbajabiamila that this was my conversation with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that you are going to pair with Dogara and he said why should I bring Dogara to come and become Deputy Speaker! Femi told me that! I said what is your problem?”

“I said, “Femi, you know in terms of relationship with members that you are not good, you need somebody who can do that for you. Let him do it, and we argued back and forth. And we had discussed that Monguno should be chairman of House Committee on Appropriation. Femi is alive. I said do you agree? He said okay. I first discussed with Femi then Dogara then I invited Monguno. I said: “Monguno, you know I can’t even call your name because you had been to this House in 1992/93 with my senior brother, I call him senior brother.”

“I said between you and your God, can you defeat either Femi or Dogara in this contest? He said no. I said then why are you in the contest, and he said that there are some factors blah, blah, blah. I said will you accept my intervention for either of them to be Speaker and the other deputy and you accept chairman of appropriation? He said yes and that I should go ahead.”

“I said no I would not go ahead but go and discuss with your people, you have supporters within and outside the National Assembly, go and discuss with them and come back. He never did. Little did I know that when I left Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s place, somebody from the North-East had gone to tell him not to accept Dogara, that the Kanuri want to have the Deputy Speakership and Monguno is Kanuri.”

“This I later came to know, and that was what informed the shift in the understanding I had with Asiwaju. So, it is not as if I stabbed him (Tinubu) as the public is being made to believe. We had an understanding. So, when I saw it, I called Dogara and said it is like God has decided to make you the Speaker because I had done the mathematics and it is only for us to talk to four or five persons, and you will make it, and that was what happened.”

“So, it is not as if I betrayed Asiwaju Tinubu. He knows, he is alive. Let him swear by the Koran if that was not what happened.”

– Culled from VANGUARD