The 2023 presidential election is more than three years away, but one of the regional youth wings of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) are already drumming support for the National Leader of APC Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The United Northern Youth and Students (UNYS) in a statement a few hours ago said they would support Tinubu if he declares his intention for 2023 presidential election.
Hundreds of Nigerians who are talking about Tinubu’s calculation and his 2023 presidential ambition described him as a joke.
The Kaduna State governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has also been mentioned as one of the possible APC presidential aspirants in 2023 poll.
In July 2019, two billboards with the inscription ‘BAT 2023’ and a popular photograph of the APC national leader was found on a building a few meters away from the Lagos State Government Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja.
Tinubu is the former governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and one of the strongest members of APC that worked for the Buhari/Osinbajo second term election.
Political observer claimed that he single-handedly picked Prof Yemi Osinbajo as Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in 2014 ahead of 2015 presidential poll. An opposition defeated the ruling party at the time for the first time Nigeria returned to democratic rule.
Osinbajo, the incumbent Vice President, was his Commissioner for Justice during his reigns as Lagos No. 1 man.
Recalled that a former Senate President Bukola Saraki revealed in 2018 that Tinubu was supporting President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election with the hope that Buhari would, in turn, support him in 2023.
Apart from the BAT2023 billboard, there were caps, T-shirts, and leaflets with Bola Tinubu 2023 embossed on them. A group loyal to the former Lagos governor Asiwaju “Reloaded Ambassadors” was said to be behind the campaign.
But Tinubu’s spokesman Tunde Rahman had said, “Neither the group nor its souvenirs are known to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. We hereby, through this medium, categorically deny any knowledge of the group and dissociate Asiwaju Tinubu from the group’s unsolicited and unwarranted materials.”
Before the inauguration of the 9th National Assembly, there were speculations that Tinubu was supporting Femi Gbajabiamila for House Speaker and Ahmed Lawan for Senate President for him to have a smooth run in the 2023 presidential election, which his media aide described it as, “senseless”.
See below what Nigerians are saying about Tinubu’s chances in 2023 presidential election if he decides to run for the No. 1 position.
