By Wole Arisekola
The news making the rounds that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been disqualified to participate in the forthcoming All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries scheduled for June 6-8 is not only untrue but could be described as a sacrilegious act emanating from mindless, vicious and treacherous individuals out of their infantile minds.
It is no news that the APC’s presidential screening committee has disqualified 10 aspirants from its primaries scheduled for next week. Chairman of the Committee, John Oyegun, revealed this on Friday. It is also a public knowledge that only 13 out of the 23 aspirants screened were cleared by the committee. However when asked about the identity of the disqualified aspirants, Chief Oyegun declined to disclose the names.
However, facts must be separated fiction, moreover, every act that could overheat the polity by mischief makers under any guise must be decisively dealt with within the ambit of the law.
For the avoidance of doubt, APC frontline aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not disqualified from the race, infact he is the most qualified of them all, judging from his pedigree and intimidating credentials and achievements in the last three decades.
Of course Nigerians are aware that a certain member of APC from Kano State, Sagir Mai Iyali, has asked the presidential screening committee to disqualify the national leader of the party Tinubu, from participating in the primary for allegedly falsifying his graduation from the University of Chicago.
Iyali in a petition dated May 17, 2022 and addressed to the APC national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, alleged that Tinubu falsified documents he tendered to INEC in 1999 while contesting Lagos State governorship election.
Iyali also said Tinubu met the required age to contest the office of president, but alleged that his age is unknown, adding that obscurity surrounding the presidential hopeful could jeopardise the APC chances at the polls.
Truth be told, Iyali’s petition was widely shrouded with lies, deceptions, sentiments and mere speculations, it has no basis, merit or strength to disqualify Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The whole shenanigans is laughable and bereft of common sense.
Meanwhile, this is also a note of warning to all overzealous and emergency “social media influencers” to stop misleading the public; only irresponsible people engage in sensationalism and in the spread of falsehoods or twisting sensitive matters to suit their narratives through use of pun, sarcasm or innuendo. We need sanity in the polity. Enough is Enough.
For the umpteenth time, I make bold to say, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will participate in the APC Primaries and he surely will be on the ballot in 2023 to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari GCON. Party stakeholders and particularly party leadership need to be circumspect, this isn’t the time to give room for incendiary comments to dominate political space, the peace of the party and its prosperity must be their ultimate goal at a time like this.
I wish Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu best of luck as he continues with his campaign and consultations. At the end of the tunnel there shall be light.