Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s presidential election.
The governor said this in a series of tweets on Monday, one day after the
APC national leader, Bola Tinubu, accused him of defecting to the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) because he wanted the Presidency.
He said, “If I wanted to and if the Presidency is what Ahmed Tinubu thinks
I defected, I could contest with President Buhari under the APC. I have
what it takes to have contested with Mr President.
“I adduced reasons of my defection to the PDP. The reasons are still on
record. Automatic ticket by the APC is certainly not part of that.”
Governor Tambuwal also faulted the claim by the APC chieftain that he left
the ruling party because it could not give him the automatic ticket he
demanded.
On the contrary, he alleged that Tinubu has shown by making such
accusations that the APC lacked a level-playing ground for its members.
Tambuwal said, “In any case, Tinubu is confessing that there is no
level-playing ground for all members of the APC; that there is no internal
democracy in it, and that some people were denied their right to internal
democracy”.
“Tinubu tried to rock the boat when he was denied Buhari’s Vice
Presidency. He thinks every other person could behave his way. If I wanted
to contest under the APC as president, I could have done so and only the
votes could have produced a winner,” he insisted.
In a statement on Sunday entitled “They Go Away Because We Go the Right
Way”, Mr Tinubu alleged that Governor Tambuwal and Senate President Bukola
Saraki left the ruling party because the APC refused to give them
automatic tickets for the 2019 elections.
The governor defected from the APC on August 1, the following day the
Senate President announced his defection from the ruling party.