2023: I Cannot Speak For Tinubu – Oshiomhole

…Says Tinubu Can’t Take Credit Or Blame For Buhari’s Feats, Failures

Adams Oshiomhole, former National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), opted not to speak when asked during an interview why the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has yet to come up with a manifesto.

Oshiomhole, who is supposedly being considered for the position of Director-General of Tinubu’s campaign organization, said he was not in the position to speak for the APC presidential candidate.

The two-time former Edo governor was featured on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Wednesday, where he was asked about Tinubu’s delay in releasing his manifesto months after emerging as the ruling party’s presidential candidate.

The question was posed to him against the backdrop of a manifesto supposedly leaked on social media by Tinubu’s supporters but which the camp of the APC presidential candidate disowned.

“Sometimes it is very difficult to control your followers. I am not able to speak extensively on what he’s going to do. I can only speak in terms of my views but it is his duty (to speak),” Oshiomhole said, adding that Tinubu would choose “proper timing” to speak or release his manifesto.

“Sometimes in communication, you choose your proper timing, that is not a weakness and there is no particular benefit in rushing out what you want to do. I mean those who have rushed out what they want to do…how much have they done in expatiating on how they are going to do it?” he quizzed.

There had been calls for Tinubu to make public his election manifesto to enable the electorates make informed decisions on whether he’s the ideal leader the country needs to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

Some citizens are particularly eager to know if Tinubu would be campaigning on the successes of Buhari or inheriting the president’s faults as different political parties prepare to go into the campaigns.

But Oshiomhole, during the interview, said it would be unfair for Tinubu to take blames or credit for Buhari’s successes or failures as he never occupied any office in the administration’s over seven years in office.

“I think in apportioning blames or credits, you look at their roles. It is a fact that Asiwaju by himself said that he co-founded the APC. I was a co-founding governor of APC along with Fashola and other governors. But he (Tinubu) never participated in governance, never held any position in government, he didn’t carry out any contract on behalf of the government, so how can you credit him either way? You can’t credit him, I mean this is just being fair.

“I mean he’s not the vice president who announced that he has been given the responsibility by the president to chair the economic team. Not just the national economic team that is in the constitution, but a special economic team put together by the government and he chairs it, so you can now ask him to account for some economic policies. You can’t say someone who never in any way participated in government should be credited with the outcome of government policies or be blamed either way,” he said.

Asked if he or Tinubu were dissociating themselves from Buhari because they feel the administration had failed to meet the expectation of Nigerians, Oshiomhole insisted that “Asiwaju is not in this government.”

When pressured further, he said: “That you belong to the same party doesn’t mean you won’t do things differently and the electorates I believe understand that.

“President Buhari inherited a terrible economic situation, don’t forget that the 2015 election was postponed on the account of insecurity in many parts of the country. Progress has been made in many areas. New problems have developed. Some are external to us, some could have been pursued differently, there’s no question.

“But going back to the issue of political parties, even as a candidate of the same party steps forward to contest for an election, he comes out with his own manifesto. It’s not one manifesto of 2015 that you want to use in 2023 because you are in a very dynamic environment and situation. So, you have to formulate policies in the light of the current situation, you don’t have to be detained by the past.”