Chief Spokesman of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr Festus Keyamo, has dismissed as fake news a report in which Tinubu said he was not doing live television interviews like his main opponents because he “is contesting for Nigerian President, not Media President.”
Following the report, the social media was awash with comments that the APC presidential flag bearer was shying away from living interviews because of ill-health and incapacitation.
Dismissing the report as fake news, Keyamo, in a chat with Vanguard said Tinubu was not shying away from living interviews, adding: “Campaigns have not started. The Nation will hear from him again and again and again.”
Asked the same question, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, who is the deputy director, of public affairs of the campaign council, said live interview is the strategy of Tinubu’s opponents and the strategy could not be foisted or forced on Tinubu.
Bamigbetan, who alongside Dr Mohammed Bulama (director multimedia of the campaign council), interacted with Vanguard Editors at the Lagos corporate head office of the best read newspaper in Nigeria, yesterday, said currently, “Tinubu is engaging in consultations. He is visiting and consulting many prominent Nigerians across the country. Yesterday (Sunday), he visited the former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and his beloved mother in Abuja. His is engaging in consultation, consultation, and consultation and not noise making.”
On the Tinubu/Kashim Shettima Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket of the APC, Bamigbetan said the party took the decision in the best interest of the country.
According to him, the Tinubu/Shettima ticket is the best the country can get now.
“Both men faced difficult challenges as governors of Lagos and Borno states, respectively and both used their skills to transform their states. They turned crises into feats and turned their states into viable states. They are transformers. They will transform Nigeria if elected. This is the best ticket. We are leveraging on their performances in Lagos and Borno,” he said.
Bamigbetan and Bulama said that the Tinubu Administration would continue with the achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration in the area of infrastructural development and economic management, adding: “What the current government has done has not been very well communicated. Rapid response system in power will be seen from May 29, 2023.”
On Tinubu’s chances, they said “2023 election is ours’ to lose ” because “70 per cent of APC votes had always come from the North. Northern voters and leaders want the person they are familiar with not necessarily a Muslim. We have given them the person they want and they have promised to deliver the votes to Tinubu.”
