“There is no other one in the race hiding or open, I am the only one in the race and most competent and most qualified to be your president come year 2023.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential hopeful, Bola Tinubu, says he remains the most competent person for the job.
Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, said this at his consultation with the House of Representatives caucus of the APC on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said: “There is no other one in the race hiding or open, I am the only one in the race and most competent and most qualified to be your president come year 2023.
“I am the only one who has been through the tutelage. I am the only one among them who has been consistent in one party. They are not stable. Some of them are rolling stones. I have been through the National Assembly,” he stated.
Mr Tinubu started the Fourth Republic under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) where he was elected in 1999 and 2003 before he formed the defunct Action Congress (AC), which later changed to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
ACN merged with other opposition parties into APC in 2013.
He said he started his political career as a senator in the short-lived Fourth Republic adding; “I am very proud of myself as a democrat because the essence of democracy is the assemblage of wise and prudent people.”
Mr Tinubu commended members of the National Assembly for their commitment, adding that the legislators represented the crux of the people while commending them for doing well by advancing democracy.
He said he was at the assembly to request the support of the lawmakers.
“This is my lifelong ambition, which I discussed with President Muhammadu Buhari. I told the President that I want to step in his shoes and not step on his toes.”
Mr Tinubu said the president responded, thus; “come out, let’s see you and how you can promote your democratic credential,” adding that he has multiple honours, a first-class degree in accounting.
According to him, “I am not here to be defensive; I am here with humility that I am one of the best products that you can sell as a presidential candidate.”
Speaking on his rumoured ill health, Mr Tinubu said: “They don’t have anything to say; they say I am not well, they are not my doctor. I am not applying to do a mixing for concrete and sand and building 34 skyscrapers. I am only applying to do a job with my can-do. I am only here to do a great job, break the shackle of poverty and remove the roadblock in our revenue.”
The former governor of Lagos State said he inherited one of the worst governed states in Nigeria, but turned the fiscal outlook of the state around from “a N600 million a month internally generated revenue to N40 billion a month.”
He queried why Nigeria would not be competing with Russia with all the resources at its disposal, saying; “we have God-given resources, capacity, knowledge, and the brain.
“We can do it. You can make me succeed with your support. I want us to forge a future for this country, we are the most populous, and we have the best brain and resources.
Speaking earlier, Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that Mr Tinubu was the man who put APC together and had declared his intention to preside over the affairs of the country.
He said that as the election was approaching, it was imperative to hear the message from those who wanted to govern the country, saying, “we have been hearing how many people are running for the presidency of Nigeria in 2023.”
The speaker, however, said that it would not speak well of the country when it boasted to be the largest in Africa and seven weeks before the primaries, only one person had been seen, one person running up and down consulting.
He said Mr Tinubu had been traveling the length and breadth of Nigeria, marketing his trade and delivering his message.
“I feel it’s wrong for a country like Nigeria that we are only hearing names but nobody is campaigning, It is unfair to every citizen of Nigeria. We cannot take Nigeria for granted,” he said.
House Leader Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, however, urged members to support the candidacy of Mr Tinubu, adding that he had done a lot in contributing to Nigeria’s democracy.
He said that his emergence would bring about a truly democratic leader that would pilot the affairs of the country.
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Mr Doguwa, however, put the aspiration of Mr Tinubu into a voice vote where members unanimously gave an overwhelming endorsement to his bid to become the president in 2023.