Atiku Is My Friend, But He’ll Retire From Politics On Feb 16 – Tinubu

A national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has said the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar will retire from politics on Saturday.

Tinubu, in a statement on Thursday, said even though Atiku is his friend, “for the good of Nigeria and even the good of Atiku himself, we do well to send him into retirement on Saturday.”

He said, “The future is uncertain until we enter it. February 16 is Election Day and on that day Nigeria shall step into its future. How you vote on that day will determine whether we walk into the future in a manner that guides our subsequent steps toward the national greatness that calls to us or will we walk into it backwards as if feebly trying to reinvent the past.

“One road leads to a certain replay of the economic injustices of the past. It is a road well-worn with familiar pitfalls and setbacks built into the very nature of it. The other road provides the truest, brightest chance for us to enter into our hopeful future but only if we are brave enough to believe in our capacity to improve our nation.

“This election is more than a contest between two men, President Muhammadu Buhari and former VP Atiku Abubakar, for that one exalted chair. The election is nothing less than a historic encounter pitting one vision and version of our future against another.

“Look, I have made no attempts to hide my friendship with Atiku. We were friends before this election and hopefully we will be friends after February 16 when he goes into retirement. Despite our friendship, I must say the type of enrichment of friends he envisions does not recommend itself to me. It is unjust and impoverishes all but a handful of Nigerians. I want no part of such enrichment for my love of Nigeria and its people is far greater and deeper than my friendship with Atiku. For the good of Nigeria and even the good of Atiku himself, we do well to send him into retirement on Saturday.”