Adebayo Adenrele
Senator Ayo Arise has debunked an online report, that he advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to distance himself from the policies of President Muhammadu Buhari in order to win the 2023 Presidential election.
Sen. Arise, former Senator who represented Ekiti North in the Senate 2007, said that the Writer also insinuated that he was closer to Tinubu and he has seen his manifesto for 2023 Presidential campaign.
He added he is not closer to Tinubu, stressing that he was not in his Camp at the last APC Presidential primaries.
He furthered that he he only opined that Tinubu would adopt the good policies of Buhari and also see how he could improve on his challenges which include insecurity.
According to him, he argued that Tinubu would not be aspiring for the presidential bid basically to adopt all the policies of his predecessor but to create new ideas.
In his words, “My attention has been drawn to a reckless report credited to me by one innocuous online platform where I purportedly claimed to have seen the Manifestos of the All Progressives Congress(APC) Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT).”
“The faceless reporter also went further to insinuate that I claimed to be very close to Tinubu and that I advised him(Tinubu) to distance himself from the policies of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration if he is desirous of winning the 2023 election.These are deliberate falsehood!”
“And, whoever quoted me as saying that I am very close to Tinubu does not know me in the first place. If I were even close to Tinubu, which I am not, I am decent enough not to advertise such or boast of such under any circumstances. I was not even in Tinubu’s camp at the last APC Presidential primaries.
Nevertheless, it is still part of my responsibility to society to comment on challenges facing our polity from time to time.”
“One of the issues I dwelled upon was the same faith controversy where I said that people needed to be educated about the circumstances that threw up the challenge.”
“Another issue which I spoke extensively about was whether continuity would be the campaign mantra of the APC flagbearer. And my submissions were unambiguous. I opined that Tinubu would adopt the good policies of the current administration and also see how he could improve on where the government is facing some challenges, particularly in the area of security. I argued that Tinubu would not be aspiring to be president basically to adopt all the policies of his predecessor but to bring in some fresh ideas.”
“To show that the reporter is lacking in requisite knowledge about politics and Journalism. It is common knowledge that a candidate can only prosecute his or her campaign based on his input, in line with his party’s manifestos. As of the time of the malicious publication, no such candidates ‘manifesto’ existed.”
