The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, boasted that he led the political onslaught that led to the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
Tinubu, who addressed the APC delegates in Abeokuta, Ogun State, said Buhari had already given up his presidential ambition before he supported him in 2015.
He said: “If not for me that led the war front, Buhari wouldn’t have emerged. He contested first, second and third times, but lost. He even said on television that he won’t contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him you will contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matters of the Yorubas. Since he has emerged I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get any contract.
“This time, it’s Yoruba turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my tenure.”
The former Lagos State governor also revealed that he nominated Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate in 2014.
He said Buhari had offered him a running mate ticket, but some blocs opposed the move, citing the danger of fielding two Moslems as the party’s candidates in the general elections.
Tinubu also declared that the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, would not have emerged in the 2019 election without his support
The APC chieftain added: “Dapo that’s sitting down here, could he have become governor without me? We were at the stadium, they tore all his posters. Even the party flag, they didn’t want to hand it over to him, I was the one who brought it.
“If he wants to meet God at the right place, he must know that without God and me, he would not have become governor.”
Abiodun had earlier declared his support for Osinbajo, who is an indigene of the state.
He, however, told Tinubu, whom he described as a political warrior, serial winner, and strategist, that delegates from the state would do “the right thing” at the convention.
Tinubu was accompanied to Ogun State by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Kano State counterpart, Abdullahi Ganduje, and former Borno State governor, Kasim Shettima