Saraki announced this Friday in a statement issued by Yusuph Olaniyonu, the head of his Media Office, in response to a speech given by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former Lagos governor, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Thursday.
Tinubu, a presidential candidate, said that Saraki orchestrated a smear campaign against him after he was chosen as Muhammadu Buhari's running mate in the 2015 presidential election.
"He (Buhari) knew all the calculations then favoured us," Tinubu said. "That is why he wanted me as his vice president, but I told him to let us first build the party."
And when we finished building the party after bringing in people from the PDP, Saraki realised that if Buhari, a Muslim, becomes president and me, also a Muslim, becomes his vice president, he won't get the senate president, and the senate president cannot be a Muslim, so they started the calumny campaign against me."
Saraki, on the other hand, stated that he believed Nigeria was bigger than anyone's desire, including Tinubu's, and that he would resist any scheme that would produce a religious crisis in a multi-religious country like Nigeria.
"Opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket was not aimed at Tinubu or anyone else." It was a decision that, as all party officials are aware, aided the party's win as well as the country's togetherness. This is a decision based on national and collective interests, not self-interest. "I have no regrets supporting a choice that benefited the interests of the Nigerian people," Saraki stated.
While expressing surprise that Tinubu refused to move on and was still upset about what happened in 2014, the former Governor of Kwara State added that the APC presidential candidate had become so fixated on the Muslim-Muslim ticket issue in 2014 that he worked so hard to prevent Saraki from becoming Senate President in retaliation.
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