Bola Tinubu Releases Statement After Buhari’s Running Mate Emerge! Says I Serve The Nation

Statement released by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu regarding
his withdrawal from consideration for the APC Vice- Presidential
Position.

I am a Nigerian who loves his country and am hopeful about
what it can become. I have seen and conducted myself as a patriot long
before I thought of myself as a politician.  I shall always walk this line and no other.

After all the political calculations are made and the dust
of competition has settled, it must be this nation and its
people who stand first and foremost. The question becomes whether we
stand strong, able to shape ourselves into our best future or will
we stand frail and trembling, burdened by the abject failure to surmount
the multiple problems confronting us.

  

It against this
backdrop that I assess any action I take. Here I come to my name being placed in consideration as the Vice
Presidential candidate for our party, the APC.  I have labored hard to move this party from being merely an idea in the minds of a few into
being a political organization that might win this election and
govern the nation in way that gives the people the hope and opportunity
they seek. Nothing is more important to me than to realize this
dream not for myself but for the people of this land I so love.

I helped to build this party, giving no thought to seeking
an elected office because of it. My contribution to the party was never
based on the expectation of a later political handout. Nigeria is in
trouble and we are well past the moment for such narrow, selfish
games.

There came a time during the course of the events when our Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari offered the
Vice Presidential slot to me. 
Being a normal human being, I was deeply moved and honored that he would consider me for the
position. Being a patriot, I had to weigh my potential candidacy in all of its dimensions.

I have concluded that the interest of the party, our
campaign and of the nation are better served if I retain my position as the
National leader of the APC, allowing me to be a bridge builder across
all

divides.  Although, I
declined the position, I want to thank General Buhari for extending the honor to me. Despite all the noise
and opposition around my possible selection, he stood firm and
steadfast.

He showed the traits of a leader in holding to a decision he
believed was right despite the errant plots against it.

When my name was raised, the political hatchet men tried to
chop it down with rumor and lies. Over the years, I have developed a
thick skin. The personal attacks did not bother me. I am used to
them. 

While I have a thick skin, I don’t have a thick mind.  There has been one form of attack that has troubled me. That is the attack
based on religion. The PDP and others have stoked fear of a Muslim-
Muslim ticket.

I have removed myself from consideration so what I now say
cannot be seen as self-serving. 
I plead with the people of this nation to never allow the power lust of cynical politicians to set brother
against brother, neighbor against neighbor. If you look at those
politicians who raise this issue the most, they are the least devout and
faithful to any religion other their self-interests.

Nigeria has too many secular problems – insecurity,  economic collapse, poverty , corruption and misgovernance – to allow
inept people to use religion to keep us from solving these challenges
for

the benefit of all.

Those who exploit religion should be wary. For there really
is a God and he does not like it when you play with his people or use
His name to do the opposite of what He intends.

I ask the people to remove religion from the electoral
equation now that the tickets of both parties are mixed.  I ask you to select the ticket best able to end the downward slide that Nigeria has
endured

since this government took over. I ask you to remember that
too many Christians and Muslims are poor. Most of all, I ask you to
remember that the true religion of the PDP is poverty,  APC come to bring prosperity to the people. 
Please vote for that.

The Nigeria I see is a nation that shall overcome. The
Nigeria I see is a nation ready to sweep aside the broken ways of our
recent past and the government and politicians who impose distress upon
us. 

The Nigeria I see and seek is one where each person, every man,
woman and child may live free of terrorism, free of the despair of
poverty and free of the fear that the government meant to serve and
protect them has turned its back to them 
in cold and utter indifference.

I see and seek a Nigeria where progressive democratic
governance creates the political and economic space needed for each of
us to contribute to rescuing and retooling this nation. And, in
the process

of this benign endeavor, may each and every one of us share
in the sound promise and good prosperity that shall describe the
architecture of our national revival.

However, not everyone that shouts the name of Nigeria
believes in this vision. There are many who would have you laid low and our
future tossed asunder that they may persist in reaping the unjust
reward of their selfish ways. There are wolves in sheep clothing and
even jackals in wolf’s clothing. I have seen them but not as
residents in some strange zoo. They populate the halls of this diminished

government and the party from which this government was
born.

We have come to the field of fateful choice. We have been
brought to test the scales of weighty decision. Shall we lift this
nation upward so that from its higher vantage point we may clearly see the
road to our better destiny? Or shall we continue to march the march
of fools into the dark of darkness. 

The current path has but one end.
It shall take us into the den of national collapse. We have gone far enough down this wicked avenue to be aware of what its continuance
portends.

We must awaken of our own accord, my dear people, before the
bell of doom rings upon us. If we wait until that moment, we would
have waited too long. Our future, our fate, our destiny would have been
cast into the snare of utter misfortune. This is not the song of
greatness. It

is the poetics of ruin.

For me, political ambition will never triumph over patriotic conviction. This delicate moment affords no space for
emotion to intrude to blind us from what is best. The APC is the best
and only

vehicle to enact the progressive and broad change this
nation cries for. I eagerly lend
myself to this fine cause without me having to be on the ticket.

This is a time for cohesion and an overriding sense of
mission. We must defeat the foe before us and resist all temptations
intended to entice us to fight among ourselves.

I sincerely commit myself to the rescue agenda of General
Buhari and Professor Osinbajo.

I declare to you, I will work and dedicate myself so that
our ticket succeeds and wins the 2015 election — not for his good, not
for my good, not even for the party’s good but for the good of the
nation we inhabit.

Some may call what I have done a sacrifice. I call it
otherwise. It is my patriotic contribution and duty. I do so with a happy and
uplifted heart and clear conscience because I have committed myself
to seeking the best for this nation before seeking what is good for
myself. This is the creed of statesmanship I chose to follow. May this be
the creed of our party as General Buhari leads us to historic victory
in the 2015 elections.

May the light of a bright future always shine on you and on
our beloved nation, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

-Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

December 17th, 2014