Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, July 02, 2004.
Tinubu indicates interest in 2007
presidential slot
By Lekan Sanni
Correspondent, Lagos
Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State
is to contest the presidency in 2007. The plan is to be unfolded in October
this year.
Lagos State Commissioner for Works and
Infrastructure, Rauf Aregbesola, disclosed this on Thursday, laying to rest the
future ambition of the Lagos State
helmsman.
Prior to this disclosure, Tinubu was touted
to be eyeing the Senate presidency come the next political dispensation.
But Aregbesola, addressing members of the
Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation (BATCO) at the headquarters of the
Independent Campaign Group (ICG) in Ikeja, said that plans have been concluded
to draft the Lagos State governor into the presidential race.
Tinubu’s entrance into the race, he
said, was to offer a credible platform for the progressive forces across the
country to contest the presidential election.
Urging the group to support the yet to be
unfolded agenda, the commissioner noted that the governor has performed creditably,
especially in the area of poverty alleviation.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD), he said,
plans to replicate in other states, especially in the South West, its
achievements in Lagos State.
“It is now time to revive and ignite
the dynamic culture of struggle, agitation and resistance for which this group
is noted for,” he said. He
also reacted to a rumour that a state of emergency was being planned for Lagos.
According to him, anybody with the love of
Nigeria would not consider such a measure in this democratic dispensation.
He said: “Whoever loves Nigeria,
whoever loves the polity, the last thing he should do is the proclamation of a
state of emergency in Lagos.”
According to him, Lagos was the hotbed of
political activities in the country, adding that it would continue to be the
waterloo of oppressive forces.
“Lagos is Nigeria’s waterloo of all oppressors.
When it is time for oppressors to perish, he would attempt to rob Lagos,”
he added.
