Tinubu: Buhari Shouldn’t Resort to Blackmail.

 Senator Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state


 There is no let-up in the war of words between the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change over their failed bids to patch an alliance to dethrone the Peoples Democratic Party. 

ACN national leader and former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bolaji Tinubu, Saturday reiterated his party’s position that CPC’s presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari[rtd] killed the alliance. 

His comments on the alliance came just as the electorate in Lagos made a U-turn in their voting pattern by casting their votes for President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party. 

As results from polling units in the state trickled in Saturday, Jonathan was leading other candidates, including ACN’s presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu, by a wide margin. 

Governor Babatunde Fashola could not even deliver his polling unit to Ribadu. 
Although Tinubu, escaped losing his polling unit to the PDP by a measly margin of 26 votes, the PDP swept other polling units in his Alausa Ward, an indication that he would lose the ward to the PDP when all results are collated. 

Tinubu, who opened a fresh can of worms on why the alliance failed, warned Buhari not to resort to blackmailing the ACN to defend his hard stance on some issues during negotiations between the two parties. 

He told reporters in Ikeja before he cast his vote that but for the unyielding position on Buhari’s part, the alliance talks would have been successful. 

His words: “It is very unfortunate that the two serious national parties could not solve their problem earlier than now. We have been at it for quite some time now.

“You all are aware of the National Democratic Movement, of which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was a member before he moved back to the PDP. The movement was left with Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, General Muhammadu Buhari and us. From that moment on, it would have been a good opportunity to form an alliance. 

“At that time, there was no Congress for Progressive Change. What we had was The Buhari Organisation. Suddenly, CPC was registered. To me, at that stage, instead of a merger to form a unified platform, they started talking about an alliance. 

“An alliance in a presidential system has never worked. You need to form a common platform with a common manifesto to be able to work together and be able to educate the people the difference between the common platform and the constituting parties.”  

Tinubu said when the merger plan did not work, Buhari said he wanted an alliance, forcing the suspension of merger talks. 

“However, if you want alliance, instead of a merger, you must be ready to negotiate, give, take and make sacrifices. But they did not want to give, but want take. 

“We suspended the alliance talks till after the National Assembly election, the result of which showed that ACN has better strength and a better spread than the CPC, so we should have been the leader in the alliance. 

“But they wanted to keep the presidential candidate as well as the running mate, in an alliance where we should have been the leading partner. 

“Now, the alliance is not strong enough to produce the senate president, neither can it produce the House of Representatives Speaker, so what are we going to get in return? 

“They were offering us cabinet positions, which you can change your mind tomorrow and sack at will,” he said. 
Tinubu said the ACN proposed a merger to be implemented after the election but Buhari refused to buy into the plan, strengthening suspicion among ACN members that  the CPC wanted to use ACN only to achieve Buhari’s presidential bid. 

The ACN leader said he was surprised when he received a text message from the party’s national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, stating: “General Buhari on Voice of America radio today said ACN has already sealed a deal with the PDP for some cabinet posts and Speaker of House of Representatives. 

“That was false, if it is true that Buhari said so, it was blackmail. I would not expect that somebody of his calibre would make such statement.” 

He confirmed that he met President Goodluck Jonathan in Lagos and there was nothing unusual about it. 

“If President Jonathan will invite the leadership of ACN to even have a discussion on collaboration, he has done well. It means he has shown the desire to win the election.

“But what has Buhari done? Has he ever willingly contacted the leadership of ACN privately? Until we were rallied by some leaders who wanted us to form the alliance, Buhari never took a single proactive step. 

“I do not believe a man running to be the president of Nigeria, and not Emir of Katsina, should not have the needed flexibility. To be a good leader, you have to be flexible and accommodating,” Tinubu added. 

Meanwhile, results from polling units in Lagos Saturday showed Jonathan was leading other candidates by a wide margin. 

This was in contrast to the voting pattern on April 9  when voters in the state had voted massively for ACN candidates, giving victory to all the candidates it presented for the National Assembly election. 

However, the tide changed in Saturday’s presidential election as the personality of the candidates, rather than party loyalty, swayed the voters. 

At Fashola’s polling unit 001 in Itolo area of Surulere, Jonathan had majority votes of 141 to ACN’s 77 votes. Even Buhari beat Ribadu to third place with 90 votes. 

In almost all other polling units in Fashola’s Ward G3, Jonathan was leading with Buhari coming behind him. 
 Ribadu came third in a contest which many people believed he would win considering the dominant influence of the ACN in the south-west. 

At Polling Unit 002 in Ward G3, PDP had 64 votes to 30 votes and 8 votes respectively won by CPC and ACN. The same trend was maintained at Polling Unit 003 where PDP had 103 votes; CPC 88 and ACN only 26 votes. 

Also at Polling Unit 004, PDP scored 152 votes; CPC 63 and ACN 25 while at Polling Unit 005, PDP maintained the lead with 142; CPC 68 votes and ACN got 31 votes. 

But at his ward in Alausa, Tinubu marginally won by 166 votes against PDP’s 140 votes. CPC had 26 votes. However, results from other polling units in Tinubu’s ward defied bookmakers’ predictions. 
The PDP’s lead in some parts of the state sparked heated debate among the masses, which trouped to the polling units to check the election results. Most of them wondered how PDP won most of the polling units. 

However, it was gathered that contrary to the belief of many ACN supporters, PDP won Lagos because the ACN did not prosecute its presidential campaign as diligently as it is doing for its campaigns for the governorship and legislative elections. 

A source said the party had pumped most of its money into the two elections and this had depleted its war chest for the prosecution of the presidential election. 

Besides, past voting pattern in the state shows that the electorate voted PDP at presidential elections in 2003 and 2007, even though it would vote ACN in the governorship and legislative polls.