Lagos—National Leader of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos
State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has blasted
controversial businessman and Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP senator-elect, Prince
Buruji Kashamu.
Kashamu-TinubuTinubu said he does not need
praises from Kashamu, saying they are not in the
same class.
Kashamu had in an advertisement praised Tinubu
over the outcome of the 2015 general elections.
The APC national leader asked Kashamu, a PDP
financier, to make a trip to the United States of
America to answer drug charges against himself.
“Please keep your peace until you make your trip
to the USA as a Senator-elect. Upon your return
we can then have a conversation. We can then
proceed with your repudiation of the PDP with a
promise that you will stop corrupting and fouling
the political system,” Tinubu said in a statement
signed by his media adviser, Sunday Dare.
“Our attention has been drawn to the recently
advertised letter by Mr. Buruji Kashamu to
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in which he described
Tinubu in superlative terms and as his role
model. Kashamu needs to stop this cynical
fawning. It will not work.
“The days of false adulation are gone in Nigerian
politics. Fake praise singers like Kashamu will find
that their particular craft is no longer in vogue.
During this election cycle, their practice has
dramatically turned from the way things are to
how it used to be.
“Henceforth, there will be consequences for the
positions a politician takes and the words they
utter.
“Politicians will no longer be able to change
direction and loyalties as if they were changing
clothes. Those in politics must know that
responsibility and accountability shall now follow
them. One can no longer walk both sides of the
street at the same time. In case Kashamu has not
noticed, the politics of principle defeated the
politics of posturing.
“That Kashumu undermined the democratic
process by buying his victory does not mean he
is part of the new Nigeria. He is merely an isolated
vestige of a dying past. The man is an extinct
species the realization of which will soon dawn
on him.
“For him to liken himself to Bola Tinubu is for a
small rut to call itself a mountain. For Kashamu to
call Tinubu a role model is Kashamu’s admission
that he does not know the meaning of the term.
There are no grounds for comparison. There is
only contrast. Tinubu has sacrificed years trying
to bring democracy to Nigeria. He struggled in
opposition to the powers that be. Without this, at
times, lonesome fight and singular determination,
the great change in Nigerian politics would not
have happened as it did. TInubu is an architect of
democracy. Kashamu is a failed demolisher of
that which Tinubu has strived to build. Under
Kashamu’s designs, our elections would be a
wholly mercantile undertaking.
“Meanwhile, Kashamu has blown wherever the
prevailing winds took him. He stood for nothing
and sacrificed nothing except the people’s welfare.
“This same Kashamu rained insults on former
President Obasanjo in a vicious campaign of
calumny. Kashamu’s party, PDP sponsored
defamatory documentaries full of lies and
innuendos against me, General Muhammadu
Buhari and other leaders of APC. Please keep your
peace until you make your trip to the USA as a
Senator-elect. Upon your return we can then
have a conversation. We can then proceed with
your repudiation of the PDP with a promise that
you will stop corrupting and fouling the political
system.
“That Kashamu would deign to compare himself
with Tinubu is a distasteful insult to Tinubu and to
anyone who knows Nigerian politics. If he has
any sense of propriety, Kashamu should retract
the corrupt missive and apologize for this latest lie
to the public.”
“Kashamu in a factory of incoherent mischief
aimed at achieving selfish goals. Before the
election, Tinubu was his arch-enemy. Now he
seeks to be the prodigal son returned home. This
scam will fail.
“Kashamu may be prodigal but he is no political
son of Tinubu. Kashamu’s political lineage tracks
to people like Bode George and President
Jonathan. He should direct his encomiums to
these men who are his true role models. They
need his contrived affections more than Tinubu
does,’’ the statement added.
Rise above pettiness, Kashamu replies Tinubu
Reacting, Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu said; ‘’My
attention has been drawn to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu’s reaction to the innocuous congratulatory
messages that I sent to him and other leaders of
the All Progressives Congress (APC).
‘’First, I must say that I doubt if the statement
was approved by him. However, if it was, I must
state that I am taken aback by the unwarranted
attacks against me as if we were still
campaigning. It is unbecoming of someone of his
stature and calibre.
‘’It is high time politicians and leaders rose above
petty issues and raise the bar in constitutional
democracy. We should not just be democrats in
words but also in deeds. We should play politics
without bitterness.
‘’ It is on record that no Nigerian politician has
taken former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the
cleaners even as a sitting President like Asiwaju
Tinubu did. Yet, Chief Obasanjo forgave him. As
for me and Baba Obasanjo, he remains my father
and leader, just as I am his son and follower. At
no time did I abuse Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
‘’As a true party man, I campaigned vigorously
for my party and its candidates. Now, the
elections are over, and as a true sportsman, I
thought I should congratulate those who won.
‘’ Short of any praise-singing, what I said in the
congratulatory message that they chose to react
to a week after it was published was that there
was no way anyone can wish away the
achievements of Asiwaju Tinubu in the nation’s
political annals, particularly in Yoruba land.
Part of the message also reads: “Although I now
belong to the opposition, your achievements
transcend political divides and I am not ashamed
to publicly acknowledge them.
“I salute your courage, commitment,
doggedness, forthrightness and tenacity of
purpose even in the face of daunting opposition
and challenges.
“By your sheer wit and unwavering commitment
to democratic ethos, true federalism and
economic prosperity, you led the Alliance for
Democracy (AD) from a one-party state to a
regional party, and now a national party that is
about to form the government at the centre.”
He therefore asked; ‘’How do these translate to
praise-singing? Are they not facts of history that I
merely adumbrated?
‘’He accused me of purchasing my election with
money, the appropriate forum to prove that is
the election petitions tribunal and not the pages of
newspaper.
‘’ On the U.S case, I wish to state for the
umpteenth time that the United States as the
bastion of democracy and the Rule of Law would
not lend itself to any form of abuse of the
fundamental human rights of an innocent soul,
especially one that has been arrested, tried and
freed by its most trusted ally – the United
Kingdom.
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