Not a few tongues wagged when a few months before the APC primaries last year, President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, visited President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock and told reporters on the sidelines that his ambition to become president of Nigeria was a life-long one.
Many, particularly the supporters of the candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, were quick to describe Tinubu’s declaration as something that bordered on desperation. How on earth, they queried, would anyone make the presidency of a country with a population of more than 200 million people his personal ambition if not for his unbridled sense of entitlement.
But at the launch of a book written in his honour in Awka, Anambra State capital yesterday, Obi literally reechoed Tinubu’s declaration, saying that he must become Nigeria’s president now or later.
In a speech that vindicated Tinubu that aspiring to become leader of one’s country was not a crime, Obi said: “Anyone who thinks I’m on transit is wasting his time. Let me tell you, I must become the president of this country. I’m sure of that. If it is not today, it must be tomorrow.”