Dino Melaye, a former lawmaker, claimed on Saturday that All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Bola Tinubu sees the presidency as his “entitlement and retirement benefit.”
On August 4, 2022, Newsclick Nigeria reported that the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had named Melaye and Dr. Daniel Bwala as his spokespersons for the 2023 presidential campaign.
Malaye, who represented Kogi West at the Red Chamber of the National Assembly during the 8th Senate, alleged that Tinubu was contesting for the presidency not on basis of the greater good but to fulfill his “lifetime ambition”.
In a video shared on his Facebook page, the former lawmaker who was responding to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, over his comment on Atiku in a TV interview recently, said, unlike Tinubu, the PDP’s candidate is contesting with rich credentials.
According to him, Atiku has the rudiments of civil administration and of politics.
“Atiku Abubakar is running for the presidency for the second or third time and he understands this route better than the political virgin, Tinubu, that you (Keyamo) are supporting who is running for the presidency for the first time and sees it as his life entitlement and retirement benefits for supporting Buhari.
“Atiku has rich credentials and he is not running because of entitlements. He is not running because of his support for any party. He is running because he’s got the credentials and he is a team player. He is a talent hunter and leader per excellence. ”
Furthermore, Melaye describes Keyamo’s comment on Atiku during the interview as “shameful, very embarrassing and a disgrace”.
“Keyamo’s inactive ministerial sojourn is affecting him. Because if he has succeeded as a minister he won’t be talking the way he is talking. Many Nigerians will tell you today they don’t know the ministry where Keyamo is working because he is redundant, inactive and invisible and he has been completely consumed by the aura of Ngige, the superior minister.
“Because Keyamo is a commercialised conscience and he has monetised his life that is why he will not understand that the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has some ministries, agencies and government parastatals under his direct supervision.
“What he has done is that he has disrespected the office of the vice president of Nigeria as a lawyer who understands the constitutionality, enormous responsibilities of that office.”