By Emmanuel OGBECHE
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has hit out at Chief Bisi Akande, former interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as suffering from selective amnesia and being a “a lapdog” of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the APC.
Akande in his book, “My Participations” launched last Thursday in Lagos, said anytime money was needed, Atiku always referred them to Tinubu.
“What prompted us was that anytime we said we needed money, Atiku would say ‘Bola, please help us’. Bola was the only one spending the money among us. The rest of us were poor. Tinubu also put all his energy and resources into the formation of the AC and we felt he deserved a spot on the ticket. We discussed with Bola on this and he said we should discuss with Atiku. It was after we were deadlocked that they brought me the blank form. So, Atiku ran with Obi and failed. Only Lagos State from South West voted for Atiku in all the states of Nigeria.”
In an interview with Daily Trust, Paul Ibe, spokesman of Atiku, dismissed Akande’s take as amounting to nothing as Atiku and Tinubu belonged to the same camp at that time.
He said, “As at that time, Tinubu and Atiku were of the same stock, political family. So what’s the story there?
“If they were not members of the AC then, like Asiwaju Tinubu and other stakeholders in the AC, who was going to fund the campaign? It was a presidential election that was run with Atiku Abubakar as a candidate. It is not about him as an individual. Campaigns are funded. Were you going to expect another party to fund it or other stakeholders from another party to fund it?
“It has to be funded by members of that party and the last time I checked from history, Asiwaju Tinubu was a major stakeholder of that party. If Chief Bisi Akande, with all due respect to him, has chosen to be a lapdog of Asiwaju, all well and good to him.
“But if people are recounting history, it must be put in proper perspective, otherwise what is being recounted can only amount to mischief. As at that time, Asiwaju and Atiku found themselves in the same political party. So if there was funding to be made, it has to be made by stakeholders and members or that party. Tinubu was a member and founder of AC.
“The presidential campaign was not about Atiku Abubakar. It was about advancing the interest of the AC as a party. That’s it. Let us try and put this thing in proper perspective so that it doesn’t appear as if Atiku was asking him money for something else. He has to fund party and there is no big deal in that. People fund parties.”
Ibe further said Atiku also invested heavily in AC at the time, saying Akande could be possibly suffering from “selective Amnesia”.
“Atiku was a standard bearer and everything was geared towards the promotion of the interest of the party. So, it is expected that members of the party, major stakeholders would fund that campaign. Make no mistake about it, Atiku Abubakar as a candidate was also a major funder of that campaign.
“For Baba Bisi Akande to single out Tinubu as somebody who contributed resources is like a mischief, it’s like selective amnesia. Apart from Atiku as a major funder, there were also other individuals who contributed to the funding of that Presidential campaign.
“So there was no need to single out any individual that may have contributed money. So make no mistake about it, that was exactly what happened. It’s their responsibility, there was nothing abnormal about that situation. The party funds its campaign, outsiders would not do that.
“Tinubu may have contributed to that campaign, he was also a major stakeholder in the party. So there was no need, except if the intendment was for mischief … for Bisi Akande to only identify Tinubu as the sole funder. It wasn’t like that.”
