Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, visited the national secretariat of the party for a meeting with the APC national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and members of his National Working Committee.
Tinubu had a closed-door session with the party national chairman before an enlarged meeting with other members of the APC NWC.
Speaking before the enlarged gathering of NWC and certain members of his entourage dissolved into a closed-door meeting, Senator Tinubu dismissed media reports of a cold war with the APC national chairman over the composition of the Presidential Campaign Council.
The APC presidential candidate who said he was willing to surrender to input from Senator Adamu into his campaign team restated that he was confident that the APC national chairman would do nothing to undermine his victory in next February’s general elections.
He said: “It is a great matter of joy and honour for us to be here, especially me in particular, to interact with the team that authorised my becoming the candidate of our party.
“I have not been able to say sincerely thank you since that primary and we have hit the ground running, especially as the unveiling of our running mate was held outside this headquarters.
‘To all the members in attendance that day, we want to say thank you. We have come together as a political party and we have taken progressivism as our doctrine. We have to be progressive in our thinking, our deeds and objective to serve the country.
“Yes, I admit that democracy is challenging, very hard and difficult a system to manage. We have seen challenges left and right outside international sphere of politics, but we are determined to ensure that we democratise Nigeria fully and remain a beckon of democracy as the largest nation of the black race in the world.
“Thank you so much for the good job you have been doing. I sincerely thank you for the cooperation and collaboration particularly the chairman for the various wisdom and interactions that we have been having together.
“To the rumour manufacturers, I read in some papers about disagreement between myself and the chairman and that was a very big lie. They didn’t know that we have come a long way. The big masquerade dance is not in the cage but in the market square.
“And that is what Adamu used to be: full of wisdom, we were governors together before God put us together on this project again. He is going to deliver as the Chairman of the party for me to become the president of Nigeria. And I am very confident of that.
“They can say whatever they want to say, throw all the jabs that they want, we are a party strongly determined to fulfil our dreams of turning Nigeria into a very progressive, highly developed, prosperous country.
“What we came here today to do is to discuss the campaign which is a few days away. When INEC will lift the ban, how do we work out the details, work together, implement all we have been saying, who are the members of the campaign council, who will not be members, and I beg you not to be angry if you are left out because we are going to give you another responsibility? Not every member here can be a member of the presidential campaign council.
“On behalf of myself, the team of the presidential campaign council, let me commend the DG and Secretary of the campaign that have worked very hard to bring this report about the organisation structure. If they (report) need panel beating, you do so. It is not a red card that we brought. We are going to bring brighter hope and confidence to the country. ”
In his remarks, the APC national chairman thanked the party presidential candidate for the visit.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Tinubu said he was confident of victory and further reassured party faithful of genuine commitment of stakeholders to his aspiration.
“We are not threatened. We are committed and we are very proud of ourselves, we are orderly, we are committed to democratic principles and values. We are not bickering in any way and you know that. Can you say that of the other parties? We are not spewing fake statistics and wrong figures, can you say that of other parties? Well, we are what we are, a progressive party.
“This meeting is to consult further, the organisation structure for the campaign for us to harmonise any fear and to make sure that we have an inclusive all party and all hands on deck to make sure that we are victorious during the election.”
