Alhaji Tanko Yakasai has revealed that he would support Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidential bid in 2023.
Gatekeepers News reports that the founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum and elder statesman, Yakasai, pledged his support for National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu
Yakasai said that the ex-governor of Lagos was at his Abuja residence on Wednesday to solicit his support for his (Tinubu’s) presidential ambition in the next general elections.
Of recent, posters and billboards advertising the rumoured presidential bid of Tinubu, who was Lagos governor from May 1999 to May 2007, have been seen in major cities, including Lagos and Abuja.
Though Tinubu has yet to declare his intention to contest any office in 2023, there have been reports and veiled indications that he might be interested in the exalted seat.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had in October inaugurated the South-West Agenda 2023, a political movement mobilising support for Tinubu to contest the 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu, who celebrated his 69th birthday in March 2021 and commands an arguably large following of political loyalists, has been reported to nurse presidential ambition in 2023, even as political debates get intense for a southern president after the eight-year regime of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an interview with PUNCH, 96-year-old Yakasai said he had earmarked two politicians to support for Presidency in 2023.
He, however, said he has no intention to join politics but he has the constitutional right to back any candidate of his choice.
He said, “I don’t want to join any (political) party but I can support a candidate of my choice. I have said it way back in 1951 that I will not be a party member but I will support a candidate of my choice.”
On the APC leader’s visit, the elder statesman said, “He just came to visit me but actually I have two of them (presidential aspirants) that I have earmarked right from the beginning and I made a vow that any one of them who came to ask for my support first is the person I would support. Tinubu is the first person.”
