It was a gathering of who is who in
Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the
All Progressives Congress (APC),
when on March 25, people gathered at
Eko Hotels, Lagos, to celebrate with
the former governor of Lagos, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu, on his 63rd birth day
anniversary. The birth day event was
marked with a colloquium. This is not
the first birth day anniversary to be
celebrated by the leader of APC who is
reputed to be father of opposition
politics in Nigeria but what makes this
years’ special is that it came at a time
when the presidential election was
being conducted.
Several speakers at the occasion
extolled the virtue of the leader of
party popularly called the Jagarban of
Africa. The Lagos State Attorney
General and Commissioner for
Justice, Ade Ipaye, who moderated the
programme took time to read out
dossiers of all speakers. Those that
spoke include Tinubu, the presidential
candidate of APC, Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (rtd), the governor of Lagos
State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, (SAN),
governor of Osun Sate, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola and the Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo presidential running mate of
the party among others.
Osinbajo used the occasion after
commending Tinubu for his
contribution for the development of
progressive politics in the country,
used the opportunity to unveil the
agenda of APC to move the country out
of the present state of poverty. He
regretted the situation where the
country with enormous resources
remains one of the poorest in the
world. In addition, close to 12 million
children who are supposed to be in
school are out of school in Nigeria.
According to Osinbajo the APC policy
of cash transfer would take school
children who could not go to school
because of the level of poverty would
take such children back to school.
To benefit from the policy such
children must be immunized against
childhood diseases and must really be
from poor background. But Buhari took
time to explain the tortuous journey to
the merger that gave birth to APC. “At
a point our detractors came with
unsubstantiated facts just to discredit
the registration of APC, but we thank
God that we prevailed,” he said.
Buhari who commended INEC for
taking the bull by the horn in the
registration of APC said it was the first
time the electoral umpire had
impressed him since its creation.
“You know I fought them up to
Supreme Court in 2003, 2007 and
2011, but I have to commend them for
the good job done in registering APC.”
He commended Tinubu for his
painstaking role in the emergence of
APC. He particularly commended the
former governor of Lagos State for his
untiring efforts to ensure that the
country experience the needed
change. Buhari told the gathering that
democracy would have been at a
crossroads if the (APC) merger
arrangement had collapsed. “The
danger of Nigeria becoming one party
state would have been more
challenging if we did not succeed as
desired by our detractors.”
When it was the turn of Tinubu to
deliver his speech, the entire hall the
chanting of Jagarban dominated the
capacity hall. The APC leader who
commended other leaders of the party
for their dogged commitment to the
struggle for change, went through
memory lane of the struggle for a
viable opposition party, said in less
than 100 hours from that time APC will
be announced the winner of the
presidential election. He told the
gathering about the rumour that the
PDP led federal government intends to
clamp down on leaders of APC. Tinubu
stated that he is prepared at any time
to go to jail based on his conviction
that things must be done in a better
way than it is at the moment.

source; http://dailyindependentnig.com/2015/03/apc-leaders-gathered-celebrate-tinubu/