TheCable

Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says the allegations against Bola Tinubu, president-elect, are “unproven”.

Speaking on Sunday in an interview with Channels Television, Fashola said the outcome of the presidential election showed that Nigerians were not bothered about the controversies trailing Tinubu.

On March 1, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the February 25 election.

In the build-up to the election, there were questions about the educational background, exact age, family ties, and source of wealth of the former governor of Lagos.

The forfeiture of $460,000 by Tinubu to the US government in 1993 over alleged involvement in illicit drug trafficking equally elicited questions about his personality.

Asked during the interview why Tinubu is always the subject of controversy in terms of exact age and name, Fashola said the former Lagos has a history of prevailing over difficult situations to achieve success.

The minister added that the controversies trailing Tinubu might be an indication of a “positive” turnaround for the country.

Fashola said there is no “sainthood” in governance and that the focus should be on performance and efficiency.

“I think those issues have been ventilated sufficiently,” he said.

“When Nigerians have decided, those issues don’t matter. That is what they have said by these votes.

“Everytime, it gets more difficult, that is his path to success. There is no easy day for him. The more difficult it gets, you can be sure, it is Asiwaju.

“I think now that all of these hurdles have been surmounted. Maybe there is a divine purpose. Maybe perhaps, this is where Nigeria begins to turn in the most positive ways forever.

“Governance is not about sainthood. It is about efficiency, performance, and delivery.

“You must understand that we should not be looking for saints. All of the allegations that were levelled against him have been either unproven or no evidence offered in support of them but they have run along for a while.”

Fashola, who was the head of the Tinubu-Shettima election planning directorate, said the APC trained 2,000 agents from all the states and sent them to the states to train the agents in their respective states.

According to the minister, some of the agents came from the United States to campaign for Tinubu.

Fashola said the ruling party also had pre-election internal polls but never released them, noting that those that predicted victory for Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar were “badly conducted”.

He also said that the party knew its results from the situation room before the final declaration by the INEC.

ALLEGED DUAL CITIZENSHIP

Recently, there were claims that Tinubu allegedly obtained citizenship of Guinea, a country in West Africa.

Speaking on the allegation, Fashola said he was not aware whether Tinubu has dual citizenship.

“I know he carries a Nigerian passport. I don’t know about dual citizenship. I know he resided abroad when he went into exile,” he added.

“I don’t know if they gave him American citizenship. What does that have to do with the results of the election? The last time I checked, I think the Nigerian constitution allows you to have dual citizenship. Doesn’t it?”

Section 137 (1)(a) of the 1999 constitution states that: “A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if — subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country.”