₦airaland Forum

egift: Tinubu Media Office Lagos-Nigeria,
August 31st, 2014
Reply to Chief Tom Ikimi.
I ordinarily would not have responded to Tom Ikimi’s lengthy chronicle of falsehoods, cheap blackmail and abuse. My only reason for this response is that I know Tom Ikimi’s style. He subscribes to the view that no matter how unbelievable a lie may sound if you brazenly assert it and repeat it often enough you may persuade many that it is in fact true. I have seen Ikimi perpetrate this deviousness in his years in public life.
1. Regarding Ikimi’s bid for the Chairmanship of the Party. It was clear to practically everyone who had the interest of the party at heart that we simply could not have a man of Tom Ikimi’s antecedents as Chair of the party. As chairman of the NRC, one of the only two political parties in the country under the military transition programme, Tom Ikimi not only connived with the then military regime to annul the elections, terminate the democratic process and sell off his party. He became Abacha’s foreign minister, convincing the world that heinous state murders like the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa were just acts! If Ikimi were the Chair of APC the party would have to sleep with both eyes open lest its chairman sell off the party before day break. No matter what anyone may say about me it is unlikely that I can be accused of supporting incompetent or morally light-weight individuals for important political positions. My philosophy is to put the best forward, men and women of competence and integrity, who can stand up to us politicians to challenge us and say no when necessary. Such people are not noisy or able to gain attention by being loud, I believe my role is to do all I can to project them. Who in their right mind would compare the highly principled Chief Bisi Akande, or Chief Oyegun with a Tom Ikimi? Either of these two men are known for their no-nonsense styles, not once in their careers would you hear that they betrayed a cause or were anybody’s stooge.
2. Ikimi also concocts a story of a meeting he claims I had with Deziani on the Oando/ ConocoPhillips transaction on the eve of the APC Convention. Only a Tom Ikimi can come up with the absurd falsehood that on the eve of the APC Convention when I was in crucial meetings practically round the clock I was meeting with the Minister for Petroleum! What exactly would have been the point of such a meeting especially on the eve of the Convention? Was it to prevent Tom Ikimi from emerging as Chairman of the APC? To what end? Of what value would it be to anyone except Ikimi himself? Besides if this was so why he is back to the same party that purportedly planned his down fall?
What is the Oando/ConocoPhillips transaction anyway? For those who do not know this is a private sale of the assets of ConocoPhillips to Oando. It was not patronage of any kind from the Federal government. The Federal government’s involvement was merely to formally consent to the sale. I was not involved and I have never been involved in any of Oando’s transactions.
Typically he plays on the fact that Wale Tinubu of Oando is my nephew. Oando has been thoroughly investigated by South African and British authorities in the past 5 years as part of the process of listing the company on the stock exchanges of those countries. Those rigorous and comprehensive investigations conducted by the governments and risk control investigators are to discover the actual ownership of shares in the company. Politically exposed persons like myself are prime targets for those investigations. All these investigations have shown that I have no investments in Oando. My public position on the entire transaction is that if an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas entity run by young serious minded Nigerians raise money transparently in the international capital markets to purchase private assets of a multi-national the Federal government ought to give its consent. That it took so long is shameful. The Conoco/Phillips transaction was a $1.7 billion dollars investment in Nigeria that would create more jobs,witness the establishment of allied industries and make the Nigerian Economy more attractive. I would have been extremely proud to have made such a transaction possible.
3. Regarding the nonsense about selling out on Ribadu. I think common sense should dictate that if ever such a deal were reached we would have had to inform our members in all the States. How could that have been done secretly? How do you tell hundreds of thousands of people not to vote for your own party without it becoming public knowledge?
At the formation of the APC, a crucial debate ensued about what to do about persons like Ikimi who had done awful things in the past, but who were now minded to align with the progressive tendency in Nigerian politics. Should we forever blacklist them? This would have been the easiest route, but it would have kept rancour alive. It would have made us slaves to the bleakest chapters of our past. Instead we opted to extend the hand of brotherhood, reconcile and put the past behind us. This would enable a broader political consensus, while also giving the likes of Ikimi an opportunity to atone for their grievous wrongs against the people and be rehabilitated.
We recognized that many leading Nigerians had committed acts of shame. Some for private profit, others who were otherwise decent people who had become prisoners to a terrible system.
Not surprisingly, Ikimi acting true to type abuse that magnanimity. He was never sincerely committed to the party. He was always playing out a PDP script. He only wanted the chairmanship of the party as a bargaining chip for negotiations with his benefactors. His defection purportedly on account of the loss of the chairmanship of the party is a mere subterfuge, once his ploy failed he had no other objective within the party, I knew he would go back to his sponsors. He is back in the company he deserves. And APC is better for it.

-Bola Ahmed Tinubu -

ukandi1: well, its pretty hard to give a straight answer to this. Truth is, i have seen more beautiful women than my wife though i try to set my mind not to accept dis fact.
I would rather say, i made a happy choice, but to say best choice,...hmmmmmmmm.
U just have to lock up ur mind and do d needful.

fairheven: If u know the antecedents of IMF AN THE WORld BANK u won't say such,those two practicaly destroyed the economies of south East Asian countries,the "asian tigers",u forgotten?the current one ,Argentina is held by the jugular by the same Institutions.
BRICS is just a name given to those countries by an economic analyst ,Jim O'Neill of Goldman sach,so if Nigeria joins tomorrow,the acronym will simply change to accomondate the letter "N".an membership is just a matter of GDP and estimated growth,u don't need to bring"goat an kola nut" to do so,u can do ur research again.

donphilopus: You shouldn't expect him to know all APC aficionados on this forum because our names ain't on a payroll unlike you PDP supporters who are known to be paid agents!

Caseless2: amaechi's 606060 project keeps ringing in my mind. What a giant stride frm a working governor.

donphilopus: If at all you wanna compare the both parties, then compare the state the govern. E.g.

Lagos Vs Akwa Ibom.

Rivers Vs Delta

Edo Vs Bayelsa, and so on!

donphilopus: How is APC not different from PDP?! PDP has been governing us for the past 15yrs yet they have nothing to show and you're here comparing it with a party of just a year +?! Hope, it ain't what I'm thinking though. Tinubu has truly failed us in terms of electricity. It's time for PDP/GEJ to rescue us.

argon500: What makes APC and PDP different? Bunch of animals

Is Chief Ikimi the only person in the APC that worked with General Sani Abacha? What about General Muhammadu Buhari who not only took up a very sensitive position in that regime as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) but also gave General Abacha a clean bill of health on allegations of corruption?

Gbawe: I am wondering the same thing too. Of course we all know that the PDP failing to improve the abysmal power situation of Nigeria for 15 years, since 1999, is surely Tinubu's fault 100%. That Tinubu sef.

djfaithy: ehn ehn, tell me something.... I wonder why tinubu has failed to give us constant power supply for 15 years, pdp na d way jare, apc is a bad party

soroptimist: Nigerian Youths and not the Elders are their own problem

Most of them are so laid-back and lack any drive whatsoever to make anything happen yet they scoff at someone who is bold enough to want to make a difference

You blame GEJ,insult Buhari,Curse Tinubu yet some of you have never even become a Class Captain before

Get your b.utt off and get involved.....

PhockPhockMan: If you tell them, they won't believe, yesterday, Tom Ikimi in Apc, today in PDP.

ba7man: When you stand for nothing in life, you'll fall for anything.
Today, you'll support PDP, tomorrow APC, next .........APGA??
Result of not having a mind of your own.

Tolexander: i sincerely love this your post. When the issue of the alliance started, i actually thought there was going to be a viable opposition, thinking APC will live up to the expected opposition we are all expecting in Nigeria. Hence, the reason for this my post then seeing one of the threads;
https://www.nairaland.com/newpost?topic=1220737&post=14688585
My bro, all i'm seeing is a part envying the national cake PDP enjoys.

dragan: Meh, Not worth the time.
Anyway next step, let some Mod put this on the frontpage. Let the OPs Opinion's be seen by everyone because , reasons.

arresa: We had this discussion before so why disgrace yourself all over again?

Fashola Vs Akpabio Thread...

https://www.nairaland.com/1438515/fashola-vs-akpabio-thread/1

ProfCorruption: Definitely, pretense can't last for too long. It's safe to say Aljharem is now a PDP guy.
It's pettiness to be calling out names of people, just open thread(s) to criticize APC and its policies.

djfaithy: *Yawnnna*.......TAN money don enter hand, baba change the sound of his trumpet sharp sharp, so few weeks ago you were a fool and blind but now you are wise and can see clearly right ?..... Continue, what can I say

Abagworo: While it is quite clear that this is more or less impersonation of aljharem, I will advice you to dig a bit further into my old contributions. I've never been an APGA member nor APC. I don't believe in political parties as they are there to serve the interest of those seeking elective positions. Ribadu is the most recent of such politicians. My stand has been an unshakable support for my amiable Governors Chibuike Amaechi and Anayo Okorocha.

[size=38pt]APC = PDP as they keep decamping and recamping.[/size]

dragan: Oh Dear! Some Random Guy is now against APC on Nairaland (Where the Politics section is filled with 80% halfwits whom have no idea how to argue reasonably and only spend their time starting religious/tribal fights)
That must be such a big deal!
So OP whats your plan here? that is aside from making an apology , which is a lame attempt at trying to make your stupid thread mean something other than declaring dislike for APC. Are you now trying to convince everyone to also follow your steps or just declaring yourself as a new member of the PDP attack force Online (you did make a thread apologizing to the current members of the Attack Force so i take it you wanna start your new job with a clean slate with them).

goodslayer: ago ni e iwo eranko yii

gej call your state and elders rascals, yet he is your lord and personal savior.

top 10 appointees, none from your region...

gave awon omo ale jatijati the audacity to curse our cities, leaders and heritage...

awon alale ati 16 orisha ile ka aro ojire ko ni je ko tuba ko she fun iwo ati gbogbo molebi re..


anago eku oko omo yiigbo...

Desola: You are very very stup1d!

texaco1: how can a sensible person reason like this for goodness sake? This is totally disgusting and annoying. Nigeria is in deep shit if some people still think like this