The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, says Nigerians should wait till January 2022 for the National Leader of All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, to declare whether he will be running for president in 2023 or not.
Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Hard Copy’ programme on Friday night, Fashola said he is yet to ask Tinubu whether he is interested in the 2023 President or not.
Tinubu, a former Lagos State Governor played a key role in the political merger of 2013 which created the All Progressives Congress.
Although he is yet to openly declare his political plans for the next election, the APC leader is widely believed to be gearing up to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari whose second and final tenure ends on May 29, 2023.
When asked whether he is interested in becoming the President of Nigeria, Fashola said, “It is a very tough responsibility, a very tough job; I don’t envy those who have held that office and I don’t envy those who aspire to take it as well.”
Asked whether he is speaking for any aspirant come 2023, the minister said, “As far as I am aware, nobody has said, ‘I want to be Nigeria’s President’. There are people speaking for people. Nobody has come out; we are not at that stage yet.
“I can venture out and say that I will speak for X or Y. Let the person come out and say, ‘I want to serve Nigeria’.
“It pains me sometimes when we see that very important job and responsibility as, ‘My people said’. I think the whole sense of it should be that I am able, I have look at myself, give me your problem, you go to sleep’.”
On whether he will support Tinubu’s rumoured 2023 presidential bid, the two-term ex-governor of Lagos said, “I saw him last week, he didn’t tell me he is running for office and to the best of my knowledge, the last statement he made on it is that people will know in January.”
Fashola also said he had not asked Tinubu whether he was interested in the 2023 President or not. “No, I didn’t ask him, I just went to ask how he was doing. He has issued a statement that, ‘I will speak in January, so let us wait till January,” he said.
