National leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to keep quiet if they do not have anything to say, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari is not a dictator.
This came as a former national chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, said President Buhari inherited piles of rot from the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan and needed time to clear the mess.
The two chieftains of APC were at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday and had long hours of closed-door meeting with President Buhari.
Reacting to allegation by the PDP Governors’ Forum that Nigeria is sliding into dictatorship under President Buhari, Tinubu told the PDP governors to keep quiet.
“I disagree with that. He was elected on a platform of democracy, he has adhered to the rule of law so far. What is dictatorship about what he has done? He has helped to stimulate the economy in the various states and that is where the people are.
“So what is dictatorship? It is very important for a steady man like the president to really help the nation recover from the paralysis and that is what he is doing, so I don’t see what is dictatorial about that. If they don’t have anything to say, they should rather be quiet.
“They created what is wrong here today and we can’t sweep that under the carpet. There must be rule of law,” he said.
He debunked speculations that he had brought list for ministerial appointments, saying “what can I do about that? They have the right to speculate, they have the right to their lies and I have the right to debunk.”
Tinubu also denied rumours doing the round that there was bickering between him and former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over who becomes the chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, insisting that there was not struggle between him and Atiku for the position as being speculated.
“Don’t listen to rumours, there is no struggle. Our party is not even looking at the direction of power struggle or anything of such.
“The support structure is to encourage and support the president as you have heard from Chief Akande, to help him institutionalise his goal, principle and vision for a new Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking on the criticism by Nigerians on the delay in the ministerial list, the former Lagos governor said there was pitfall in rushing, quick fix, depending upon the depth of the rot, saying such rush could lead to mistakes of unimaginable magnitude.
“There is equally glory and recovery in slowness, when you have a slow fix of a bad foundation. So, to me, I would rather take the one that will last the country and endure for a longer period of time than the rush hour shopping,” he said.
Speaking against the backdrop of criticism of the delay in appointment of ministers by Buhari, Akande said the president required time and must be encouraged to deal with the rot in the system.
“President Buhari inherited piles of rot in the Villa and I said ‘let me see him, talk to him and report to my party,’ with a view to knowing how to encourage him to change the rot to good,” he said.
When asked by journalists on what they were discussing for over two hours, the former APC chairman retorted: “It is the rot, piles of rots upon rots.”
Tribune
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