The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has refused to be available for debates and scrutiny because he had many things to hide, Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant (Public Communication) to the Democratic Party presidential candidate of the Peoples, Atiku Abubakar said on Sunday.
According to him, Tinubu’s refusal to “open himself to scrutiny, evading debates, nonpartisan public meetings and live interviews” has exemplified the Biblical theory that “the wicked flee when no one pursues them, but the righteous are bold as a lion. ”
Shaibu in a statement titled “Reveal Your Real Name, Background, Atiku Campaign Dare Tinubu”, alleged that the APC standard-bearer’s entire life and persona were based on falsehood and therefore cannot address the questions and therefore decided to continue. all over the place.
He said: “But these controversies did not start today. In 2007, a former head of the Lagos State civil service, Abdulrafiu Babatunde Tinubu, one of the oldest members of the Tinubu family, published a book titled “Onijumu Wura: The Tinubu Dynasty of Kakawa, Lagos (The Tree)” .
“Abdulrafiu included the names of all members of the Tinubu dynasty from the 19th century to date. The name of Bola Tinubu was conspicuously missing from the book. The author claimed that anyone whose name was not in the book was not a bona fide member of the Tinubu family.
“Atiku Abubakar’s story has never been in doubt. His father was Garba Abubakar, a Fulani trader and farmer, while Atiku’s mother was Aisha Kande. Atiku was named after him from his paternal grandfather, Atiku Abdulqadir, who hails from Wurno, Sokoto State and immigrated to Kojoli village in Jada, Adamawa State. His maternal grandfather was Inuwa Dutse, who immigrated to Jada, Adamawa State from Dutse, Jigawa State.
“Where is Tinubu from? Who are his parents? Who was Tinubu’s father? What was his name? What is Tinubu’s full name? Is it Bolatito, Omobolanle, Abolaji, Bolarinwa?
“While it is not uncommon for leaders to use a shortened version of their names, more often than not, for the purpose of stylistic interpretation, the full disbursement of their names is public knowledge.
“In the Second Republic, names like Bisi Onabanjo, Bola Ige, Bisi Akande and many more from the Southwest region are brands of great political icons. But still, everyone knew that the Governor of Ogun State in the Second Republic was known in full as Olabisi Onabanjo, the same for Ajibola Ige and the rest of such examples.
“However, it is confusing that in the case of the APC presidential candidate, he is simply known as Bola Tinubu. No one knows the ‘Ball’ prefix or suffix of it.
“Tinubu also appears to have gone straight from childhood to college in the United States of America, hence his record as the only presidential candidate in Nigerian history not to include his primary and secondary school information on his INEC CF001 form. .
“In early 1999, while running for governor of Lagos State, he lied under oath that he was attending St. Paul’s School, Aroloya and Government College Ibadan, but his credentials were soon questioned by the late legendary lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN ), even as it had been established that Tinubu had no classmates in elementary or high school.
“Eager to avoid another embarrassing scrutiny, he has now decided to keep quiet about his primary and secondary education. Instead of telling the truth, his campaign spokesman Festus Keyamo cheekily stated on Arise Television that Tinubu did not attend primary or secondary school and should therefore be commended for beating the odds.
“They are asking what elementary school one must have attended to go to high school. We want the youngest to know that this is a virtue and not a vice. In those days, great men wrote exams from home,” Keyamo said. This is complete nonsense given the fact that Keyamo had sued the Lagos State Legislative Assembly in 2000 for acquitting Tinubu of falsifying school certificates.
“As the APC continues to insist that they will not submit their presidential candidate for media scrutiny, we can therefore call on the media handlers of this particular ‘Bola’ Tinubu to let him know. give the country and its people the full outlay of the Bola Tinubu name. .
“The country and its people need to know if the man who seeks to become its president is known as Adebola, Ajibola or, perhaps, is simply: Bola (lokan)?
“The nation will be very grateful if APC can remove this little veil from the many nuances about their presidential candidate that they don’t want the Nigerian people to know about.
“It’s often said that you can fool some people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Nigerians must not allow a stranger, an anonymous man with no record to control the fate of more than 200 million people.”