Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a political group loyal to the former governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the platform of Tinubu Media Team (TMT) said it has started the collation of 2.5 million signatures asking the national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest for the President.
The group said a petition will be sent to Tinubu after the collation of 2.5 million signatures, adding that it will not take a “no” for an answer.
Speaking with newsmen at the inauguration of its National Executive Council (NEC) in Abuja, Wednesday’s night, national coordinator of TMT, Muhammed Bello, said Tinubu’s antecedent, history and contributions to democracy and progressive politics in Nigeria clearly shown that he is the right man to take over from the current President Muhammadu Buhari.
When asked whether the former Lagos governor has given his consent to the project, the TMT national coordinator said: “Honesty, we are yet to seek his consent and he is not aware of this. But that is why today we started with signing of a petition, calling on him to contest for the president of the federal republic of Nigeria and we are telling him that we are not going to take no for an answer.
We intend to get at least 2.5 million signatures across the country.
The petition and the collation of the signatures will last for some months pending when we are able to collate the signatures. We are just starting today and we have about 200 signatures already. ”
The TMT national coordinator also advised President Muhammadu Buhari to respect his promise that he will not seek for third term, adding that supporting any other presidential aspirant aside Bola Tinubu will mean the president is seeking a third term indirectly.
Also speaking, a senior legislative aide to the Speaker Femil Gbajabiamila, Hon. Abdullahi Umar Faruk, said the next leadership (President) that will come in 2023 must be the one that will continue to inspire the hope and sense of common purpose started by the Buhari administration and running a transparent and inclusive government that is accountable to the citizenry.
He said Bola Tinubu’s “struggle for democracy that contributed to drive the military away in 1999/97, his cosmopolitan mind-set of creating a society that works for all in Lagos State and also produced the impresses political network that is ethnicity and religion neutral, but sensitive.
