Tinubu’s Son Said ‘Daddy Is Sleeping’ When I Asked About Him – Keyamo

The spokesman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, APCPCC, Festus Keyamo, has said the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, is hale and hearty after he spoke with his son, Seyi, on Thursday morning.

Keyamo stated this on Thursday morning on Arise TV’s programme, The Morning Show.

His defence came after being asked whereabouts of Tinubu, who has been out of the country for 12 days, amid rumours that he is ill and receiving treatment in the United Kingdom.

Keyamo responded when asked specifically where his principal was and what was happening, saying, “Let me let the cart out of the bag. I just spoke with Seyi, his son. He told me that daddy is fine, and is sleeping.”

The Minister for State for Labour also explained why the party has not rolled out its campaign drums noting that contrary to reports that the party’s meeting on Wednesday was a stalemate, the PCC is still consulting.

“We are consulting various stakeholders,” he said, adding that “APC is a very large party. It’s like starting a 50-tone truck. It’s bigger than all these small parties moving all over the place.”

The Minister frowned at journalists, saying, “Opinion of journalists is not a barometer by which we judge our affairs here. I won’t accept you quoting that,” when told what the African Editor of The Economist, Jonathan Rosenthal said about Tinubu.

Rosenthal had said, “Oh dear, it is never a good sign in a presidential campaign when a candidate feels the need to prove he is still alive.”

He dismissed that assertion, pointing out that Tinubu is healthy and not ill, adding that the APC candidate will be back in the country in a number of days.

“No cause for concern. He is not the president to issue statements as for his whereabouts.”

He added that Tinubu is not the president and that his “standard is not as high as the president, who should at every time issue statements as to his whereabouts.”

He likened Tinubu’s situation to Catch-22, saying it’s difficult to explain his situation because whatever he says will become an issue as to why he has been missing.

“We won’t run our campaign for mischief makers. Genuine people should be satisfied when his campaign spokesman says so,” Keyamo contended.

On what the APC will campaign to seek for votes, Keyamo said the party will be campaigning on three major things.

“We are going to campaign on three things: President Muhammadu Buhari’s Seven and half years record, Tinubu’s record of service in Lagos State as governor and Third, his manifesto.

“The first two, we have in the last few weeks put that out for Nigerians. We have spoken more on record, we have rolled out a lot of his achievements in Lagos and the records of Buhari.

“We haven’t started our campaign. The INEC timetable for the campaign has come and gone, it’s not compulsory to start on that day.

“The manifesto is ready. Because our candidate is one with all sense of inclusiveness, we have given it to major stakeholders to make input. I also provided inputs. It will be released when we will Inaugurate our campaign council,” Keyamo stated.

He further explained that the manifesto addresses what Nigerians want to hear, assuring that “Nigerians won’t be disappointed.

“Tinubu has always been ready to rule and has always had a manifesto but because of the dynamics of current issues, micro economics, he has to tinker with the manifesto,” he added.

When asked why Lagos is rated the second worst city in the world after Damascus in Syria to live in, he dismissed the report for being outdated and taking “statistics of 171 countries.”

According to Keyamo, the main indices the report looked into was the post COVID-19 situation and quickness of countries to open up, which he said Lagos could not open up in time because “pubs, restaurants” were still shut when other countries had already opened for businesses.

He added that, the report favoured Lagos being that, “it was the only city in Nigeria that came within measurability.

“Even if it’s the worst second city, it’s a credit within Nigeria because it’s a city that came within measurability. Others didn’t qualify to be measured. It’s a credit to Asiwaju (Tinubu).

When asked how he combines his ministerial work with being a spokesman of the APCPCC, he explained that “I have responsibility towards my party. They take my dues every month from my salary …it behooves me to juggle my time very well so it doesn’t conflict. I have to represent my party in the campaign…

“No constitutional or legal infraction,” he defended.

On the issue of the legality of the candidacy of Tinubu following Court ruling in the Osun Governorship election, which ruled that a sitting governor or someone elected into an executive position cannot hold another Executive position, a position he had warned the APC about when the judgement was made, Keyamo said he raised the issue privately and wondered why it was made public.

“When I raised the issue, it was supposed to be private. I don’t know why it was revealed” (to the public).

He however expressed his belief that, “the Court of Appeal will side with my party. I will defend my party.
I’m confident,” of victory, he stated.

According to him, “Things happening (now) are in favour of the APC. The Court didn’t nullify everything.

“You have to look at the timeline…the constitutional timeline for you to go to court to challenge decision arising from nomination of candidates

“My party is safe. I will join the party behind the scene as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to defend my party,” he assured.

On the rising number out of school children, Keyamo said it’s no fault of the Buhari-led federal government such a high number.

He blamed state governors, saying primary and secondary education falls within their purview and that the federal government has been specific in its intervention.

He pointed out that other governors on the platform of other political parties are culprits and not only the APC governors.

“That’s a state responsibility and not federal government responsibility,” he said, explaining further that, “We intervened in terms of funding…We encouraged them to go to school through a school feeding programme.

“We did it in collaboration with PDP and APC governors (alike) at the state levels to enable them to go to school.

“Because of that school feeding programme, there was an upsurge of children who went back to school,” he said.

On unemployment, he said, “I agree the numbers are not salutary. However, go and look at the figures, look at state by state unemployment, it is not for the federal government alone to employ” Nigerians.

He alleged that “some opposition (states) have more” unemployed Nigerians.

He added that “states also have responsibility to employ people, the federal government is to provide the enabling environment to create jobs.

“We have a lot of programmes to skill Nigerians. A lot of money was pumped into agencies for Nigerians to get skills

“The Agric policy made Nigerians go back to farms to be self-employed,” he added, saying if the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, had the capacity to get the statistics of Nigerians, who have been employed through the informal Agric sector, the numbers would have been higher.