Tinubu Supported Atiku’s Presidential Bid, Worked For Nigeria’s Unity – Yilwatda

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has recalled President Bola Tinubu’s 2007 backing of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to become president.

Naija News reports that Yilwatda spoke on Friday at the party’s national secretariat while receiving defectors from opposition parties in Sokoto, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kano and Plateau states.

Yilwatda said Tinubu worked for Nigeria’s unity, but many of the people the President supported over the years withdrew their backing when he declared his ambition to contest the presidency in 2023.

He said, “If anybody has worked for the unity of Nigeria, it is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in 2007, supported Atiku to become the president of Nigeria because he believed then that power should move from the South to the North.

“People that he has supported all through from the North and South, when he said he wanted to contest, most of them pulled out their support.”

According to Yilwatda, Tinubu supported the current National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, in 2011, when Ribadu ran as a presidential candidate under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The APC chairman also recalled Tinubu’s support for late former Presidents, Muhammadu Buhari and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

He added, “He supported and sponsored his network to ensure that he became the president of Nigeria. He’s from the North.”

“In 2015, Tinubu stood behind President Buhari for the unity of Nigeria and social cohesion, power should move back to the North because we lost President Yar’Adua.

“In 2019, when a lot of the northern elders and politicians left Buhari, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stood for him and led a reconciliation committee that brought Nigerians together to support President Buhari.

“Most times, they deceive you. They say, ‘What has President Bola Ahmed Tinubu done for the North?’ They keep on saying that.”