The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday defended a fight-for-power comment made by its 2023 presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu in a viral video.
A member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Ayo Oyalowo said people deliberately twisted what Tinubu said in the video, noting that the APC presidential candidate is a promoter of peace and not violence.
“Political power is not going to be served in a restaurant. It is not served à la carte. It is being determined to do it at all cost, fight for it, grab it, snatch it,” Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, reportedly told some APC members in the viral video.
Oyalowo on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday said Tinubu’s statement does not in any way promote political violence.
“The candidate said power is not served à la carte, you must fight for it. How does it mean fight for it? Fight for it means go to every nook and cranny, say what you need to say, push the right buttons, speak with people and that is what he (Tinubu) has been doing,” the APC chieftain explained.
However, Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar said Tinubu’s comment is undemocratic.
“That to us is undemocratic and this are some of the things that people take as lead and they go to the streets,” said Bwala, who was also a guest alongside Oyalowo on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
Bwala accused the APC of bullying and threatening opposition party including the PDP and the Labour Party (LP). “No wonder when the signing of the peace pact happened, he (Tinubu) was not in the country,” he stated.
Bwala said it behooves on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure peaceful elections in 2023.
On why Tinubu was not present to sign the Peace Accord, an initiative of the National Peace Committee, in September, Oyalowo said the APC candidate was on his way out of Nigeria when he was informed of the event.
The APC chieftain said Tinubu’s running mate, Kashim Shettima represented him at the signing of the Peace Accord, warning that critics should not make an issue out of Tinubu’s absenteeism at the event.