Tinubu pledges loyalty to Buhari, insists on party supremacy

Former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has restated his loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that he stood with the President on the issue of the supremacy of the party.

Asiwaju Tinubu made these positions known while speaking with journalists at the presidential villa after breaking fast with the President Tuesday.
The occasion also erased the notion in the minds of some that the duo had fallen apart as a result of crises in the party occasioned by the manner of emergence of the principal officers of the National Assembly.
Asiwaju told the journalists that he had not made any demands on the President but was concerned about the crisis in the party and working to ensure its speedy resolution.
“I have made no demands. If you understand what party politics and leadership is all about, it is about loyalty and commitment to the values which the leadership believes in. “I believe in what the president believes in, I respect him and I stand firmly loyal to his cause. So you can go to any length of speculation that you might want, I have not responded to all of that because I understand the president and the president understands me clearly.”
He said that the crisis in the National Assembly “is an area where I am very cautious of my position and my utterances. I still want to keep my side of the interpretation or analysis to be able to achieve a resolution of the matter as quickly as possible.
“I am backing what the president has carefully enumerated and articulated to the party. The party is supreme. The party must have disciplined leadership and followers. The party’s process must be respected because that is the confidence and the trust of the people. “However in every environment, we should have conflict, that is politics and conflict resolution mechanism would be applied to resolve all the problems, so we are there. There is honour in every struggle and in every competition, there must be honour in victory too.”
He said that the APC is different from the PDP, stressing that APC will not repeat the mistakes of the PDP. “We know their mistakes, errors, we understand what Nigeria wanted and Nigerians gave this party victory because of our manifesto. We are pro-people, we are progressives. We have had a conservative government in the last 16 years, this is a progressive party, just coming in barely 30 days. We understand the hope of Nigerians, we understand the expectations of Nigerians, we believe in that expectation and in our promise of prosperity to the people. We will not change that,” he assured.
Tinubu at the breaking of fast also lashed out at those who have been complaining that President Buhari has been too slow pointing out that there was necessity for careful planning to reverse the failings of the last 16 years.
“We are slow. Yes. We didn’t campaign to be firefighters. We campaigned to be planners. A laxity of 16 years cannot be cleaned up in 30 days,” he said while commending the President for the steps he has taken so far, especially in the area of security.