TheCable

Reno Omokri, former special adviser to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, says Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made it possible for Muhammadu Buhari to emerge president in 2015.

He said the credit does not belong to “northern elders”.

Omokri said this in reaction to a statement by Ango Abdullahi, chairman of the northern elders forum, who said on Wednesday that the north will not allow Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to replace Buhari should he fail to seek re-election in 2019.

But Omokri said if the north could have made Buhari president, the region would have done so in previous years.

Writing on his Facebook page on Wednesday, he said that contrary to Abdullahi’s claim, it was Tinubu “that God used” to make Buhari president in 2015.

“Ango Abdullahi has no basis for saying that the North would not allow Professor Yemi Osinbajo succeed Muhammadu Buhari in 2019,” he wrote.

“The North does not decide for Nigeria. Nigerians decide for Nigeria. What Ango Abdullahi seems to have forgotten is that it was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that God used to make Muhammadu Buhari President in 2015.

“If the northern elders forum could have made Buhari President, they would have done so in 2003, 2007 and 2011 when Buhari tried unsuccessfully to become President. Nigeria has changed.

“Unfortunately, people like Ango Abdullahi and Junaid Mohammed, who add very little value to Nigeria and exist only to make provocative statements, should realize that should their words precipitate crisis today or in 2019, both they and those they represent will be the biggest losers because they have more to gain from a united and peaceful Nigeria founded on the rule of law than others.”

Junaid Mohammed, a member of the house of representatives in the second republic, had recently said that the north will insist on two tenures if Buhari is unable to complete his current term in office.

He said if Osinbajo takes over from Buhari before his tenure elapses, power should return to the northern region “for a solid eight to ten years”.

Osinbajo is currently acting as president having been handed over to by Buhari who is away on his second medical vacation to the UK in 2017.