About a month after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as winner of the February 25 presidential election, the whereabouts and health condition of the President-elect has continued to generate ripples within his political circle.
Although the media managers of the President-elect had hinted that his travel to overseas was for vacation after tiring electioneering campaigns and subsequently Lesser Hajj in Saudia Arabia, informed sources within the ruling APC have revealed that Tinubu’s trip outside the country at this time and tales of his failing health condition “are already getting many leaders of the party nervous.”
The apprehension over Tinubu’s health was further heightened when his personal spokesperson, Tunde Rahman, announced on Monday, “that the president-elect had directed that prayers should be offered across Lagos in celebration of his 71st birthday anniversary” instead of the annual ritual of crowd-pulling colloquium.
Tinubu, who is celebrating his 71st birthday anniversary on Wednesday, March 29, usually celebrates the day with lecture series under the auspices of the Bola Tinubu Colloquium.
While no one has been able to put a definite location where the President-elect visited overseas, it becomes even more worrisome, that no photos of recreational activities have surfaced either online or through his media handlers since he left the country a week ago.
“Look at the way he left the country secretly. He was already out of the country before his spokesman released the press statement about the trip. No airport photos showing his departure and arrival at his destination. It’s strange for a President-elect of a country like Nigeria,” a source told LEADERSHIP.
In both the ruling party and the opposition parties, there were growing concerns among political leaders on the prospects of Tinubu being inaugurated as President on May 29 when the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to handover to his successor.
While the candidates of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, are currently challenging the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election in court, associates around Tinubu, especially one of his campaign’s media directors, Mr. Festus Keyamo, among others, have continued to express worries about “plots to truncate Tinubu’s inauguration and undermine democracy” apparently to shy away from the real issues.
Competent sources said that the development is beginning to allegedly brew a cold war between the incoming First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and the incoming Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima.
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