November 20, (THEWILL) – Former Lagos State governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, will in January 2022, speak on his bid for the 2023 Presidency.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed the development, said Tinubu would address Nigerians on his rumoured presidential ambition
Fashola spoke on Channels Television’s ‘Hard Copy’ programme aired on Friday night.
Tinubu has been reported to nurse presidential ambition in 2023, even as political debates get intense for a Southern President after the eight-year regime of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari.
Posters and billboards advertising the rumoured presidential bid of Tinubu, have been seen in major cities including Lagos and Abuja..
A SouthWest Agenda 2023, a political movement mobilising support for Tinubu to contest the 2023 presidential election, was inaugurated in Lagos in October by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and other party chieftains.
But Tinubu, himself has yet to declare his intention to contest any office in 2023.
When asked whether he will support Tinubu’s rumoured 2023 presidential bid, Fashola said, “I saw him last week, he didn’t tell me he is running for office and to the best of my knowledge the last statement he made on it is that people will know in January.”
Fashola also said he has not asked Tinubu whether he is interested in the 2023 President or not. “No, I didn’t ask him, I just went to ask how he was doing. He has issued a statement that, ‘I will speak in January, so let us wait till January”, he said.
Asked if he is interested in becoming the President of Nigeria, Fashola said, “It is a very tough responsibility, a very tough job; I don’t envy those who have held that office and I don’t envy those who aspire to take it as well.”
Asked whether he is speaking for any aspirant come 2023, the minister said, “As far as I am aware, nobody has said, ‘I want to be Nigeria’s President’. There are people speaking for people. Nobody has come out, we are not at that stage yet.
“I can venture out and say that I will speak for X or Y. Let the person come out and say, ‘I want to serve Nigeria’.
“It pains me sometimes when we see that very important job and responsibility to, ‘My people said’. I think the whole sense of it should be that I am able, I have to look at myself, give me your problem, you go to sleep’.”
Fashola also said there are opportunities in ongoing separatist agitations for secession..
Asked whether he sees opportunities in separatism, Fashola said, “I see opportunities in the challenges that we have as a country; there are always opportunities every time that we have a problem and that is why people tell you: ‘don’t waste a crisis’. There is one thing to have a crisis but the worst thing is to waste one.
“There are opportunities in every problem that we face and I am always positive in my outlook: how do I get better from this? A life without problem is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that confronts problems, solves them, and learns from them.”
When asked for the second time the opportunities he sees in separatism, the two-term ex-governor of Lagos said, “There are opportunities there for a conversation around why those voices are louder now than they were 20 years ago.
“Those agitations are not unique to Nigeria; the Scottish want a referendum and they want to leave if the opportunities provide them, so it is not unique to us. These are human issues and how we engage with one another and to then ask a genuine question and we would always be better off together and to find out how to make that union stronger, better and more fulfilling. That is an opportunity and it is a conversation I would like to have.”
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