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Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State, has described President Bola Tinubu as a very daring and self-made man, who owes his emergence to nobody, including his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
He said Tinubu “was adept at studying the system, manipulating it. He exploited it and he did it well”.
Lamido, a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said this during an interview with the Nigerian Tribune.
He said: Prior to the convention, he (Tinubu) was in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he boasted that it was his turn to rule Nigeria. And Buhari, very naive, was watching. He never liked Tinubu. There was somebody he wanted.
“He didn’t even trust his own vice president, Professor (Yemi) Osinbajo; he wanted Ahmed Lawan, but his calculation was absurd. You have done eight years for the North and you wanted another Northerner for another eight years?! No. Maybe later but there are some dynamics which you can’t alter, not in Nigeria of today.
“The president of Nigeria, after being in office for eight years, lacked the courage to push through his anointed choice. He was there at the convention and Tinubu that he never liked, he never believed in emerged. Tinubu knows that his victory wasn’t from Buhari, therefore, he owes him nothing.
“He wasn’t the choice of Afenifere, Obasanjo never liked him, but he became president. All the other groups, including the governors, were there but he won. He was determined to demolish all obstacles and he crushed them.”
He said the PDP is working towards winning the 2027 elections, despite the challenges facing the party.
“We are working hard, but it is a huge task. It is going to be difficult with Tinubu, with his hold on the country, on the economy, and his audacity to say this is where I stand against Nigeria’s interest. It is something else. Tinubu is very daring; he is his own creation, he is a self-made man, right from Chicago, what he went through on the streets.
“Look at how he was able to fight the Alliance for Democracy and Afenifere and then Obasanjo. At the APC convention, Buhari was against him but he defeated Buhari. What are you talking about? Don’t underestimate a man like that. Look at how he made it in life. He confronted all obstacles to get to where he is today, at the apex.
“There is no Nigerian like Tinubu who has been there on his own. Every established political arrangement, every institution, he demolished them. Now that he is in charge, he is not going to be easy to deal with. With Tinubu, Nigeria is a fiefdom, Tinubu is the emperor. And if you watch him closely, he doesn’t care.”