2023: Tinubu could have been PDP’s consensus – Bala Mohammed

Mohammed said this on Sunday, April 24, 2022, when he appeared on ThisDay Live, a segment on Arise TV.

Mohammed was one of the invitees that attended the iftar hosted by First Lady, Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, for presidential hopefuls on Saturday, April 23, 2022.

Speaking on the programme, Mohammed said he met Tinubu among other eminent Nigerians, adding that the former Lagos governor would be given the presidential ticket because of his contributions if he was in the PDP.

Supporters of Tinubu have been calling on the APC to hand him the presidential ticket because he “worked hard” in getting Buhari into office.

According to the governor, he attended the iftar to prove that he is a product of consensus.

“I knew it was an opportunity to meet other eminent Nigerians who are stepping out to present themselves,” he said.

“And I was lucky I met Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we discussed, he was calling me consensus and I told him that: ‘if you were in PDP we would have just given you the ticket because we knew that without you Buhari wouldn’t have been a president’ and so in PDP we recognise contributions.

“We have some people in Nigeria that we must recognise and it was definitely a good outing for me yesterday. The First Lady is a unifier. She has shown that she is a mother of the nation and all the presidential aspirants not only in PDP, APC but all the other parties were there. It was an opportunity to show that I’m really a product of consensus or closing rank irrespective of party differences.”

The special Iftar, which the First Lady organised for presidential aspirants in the 2023 election, was held in Abuja.

Mrs Buhari also urged the aspirants to create a fair playing ground for the 2023 general elections.

Some other attendees were Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi; Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio among others.

While Vice President Yemi Osinbajo did not attend the event, his wife, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, was present at the dinner.

The APC National Women Leader, Betta Edu, also attended the Iftar.