Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima has explained that his administration named an estate after former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to appreciate him for freeing the state’s APC from the hands of a ‘tyrant’ who made frantic efforts to hijack the party’s machinery ahead of the 2015 governorship, national and state assembly elections in Borno State “but was resisted by forces led by Tinubu in favour of the governor and majority of his associates.”

Shettima explanation is related to Tinubu’s two-day visit to Borno State last Monday and Tuesday where he inaugurated 432 houses, 13 primary and junior secondary schools and a fully furnished ‎estate with 26 apartments in five sets of three-storey buildings for medical doctors, named ‘Bola Tinubu Court’.

He recalled that he succeeded in taking control of the Borno State APC in 2015 largely because Tinubu refused to support the game plan of a “wealthy tyrant” (whose name he didn’t mention) that fought hard to seize the state APC as his personal estate.

“For us in Borno State APC, I must confess, that we owe our political freedom and independence to not only our firmness but importantly, to the wisdom and sincerity of Tinubu. Someone has asked me yesterday and sort to know our reasons‎ not for inviting Tinubu to inaugurate projects but for naming a project after him in the state. I replied the person in five words by saying: ‘It’s our show of gratitude. Naturally, the person asked me, gratitude in what sense. I explained that after the APC was created in the buildup to the 2015 elections, we firmly resisted serious attempts by someone who wanted to completely hijack the entire party machinery with total disregard for our existence. But despite our resistance, that person would probably have had some oxygen if he had secured the support of Tinubu.

“From day one, Tinubu was opposed to political tyranny in the state and was in support of our political freedom and democratic liberty. He showed clear support for the APC machinery in the state to rest with us because he knew that our commitment to the APC was genuine and not for the sake of trading the party, the APC, with the then President seeking re-election under PDP,” Shettima noted.

He added that “we had President Muhammadu Buhari’s electrifying popularity to our advantage which significantly helped us during the elections. Before the elections, we had the wisdom and sincerity of Tinubu who supported us to remain in control of the APC in the state, secured our primaries and deployed energies to winning not just the governorship but also all the three senatorial, 10 House of Representatives and 28 State Assembly seats in state. ‎ We are grateful to you for your leadership and for your sincere support in our battle of freedom from political tyranny.”

Shettima also paid tribute to Tinubu for his humility, noting that the attitude of his wife, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, reveals the man in him.

‎”There is an African saying (I think from Ethiopia) that often times, the true nature of a very powerful man, is easily seen from the character of his favourite wife.”

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