The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday met with former President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja in continuation of his consultation ahead of the 2023 elections.
Tinubu was accompanied by his running mate, Kashim Shettima; Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun; Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru; Plateau State Governor and Director-General of Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organisation, Simon Lalong; and Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara State.
Although details of their meeting were not made public, a source in Tinubu’s camp told our correspondent that the visit was an extension of the APC national leader’s consultation with major stakeholders in the polity ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
“His visit to Jonathan shouldn’t come to anyone as a surprise. Tinubu holds no grudges with any political whether within the party or in the opposition,” he said.
The source also noted that the former president was elated to see them and open to consultation on the APC presidential candidate’s ambition.
Tinubu’s closed-door meeting with Jonathan came on the heels of his earlier visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Meanwhile, the National Working Committee of the APC, on Tuesday, dismissed speculations that Tinubu and the party’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, are at loggerheads over his choice of Lalong and Festus Keyamo as Director-General and spokesperson for the APC presidential campaign.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday at the party’s secretariat, the Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Duru, dismissed the rumour of a rift between Adamu and the presidential candidate.
He said, “There is no power tussle over positions. None of such has happened. The party and the candidate are working together. But it is important to say that we agreed on DG and spokesman.
“The governors will control the structures at the zones. The party can’t be excluded and it won’t even exclude anybody. We will have an embracing and all-inclusive campaign council. There is no discord anywhere. More importantly, the party chairman agreed on the issue of DG and spokesman.”