…says Action Congress emerged from coalition, not Tinubu’s personal property
Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has disputed claims that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “donated his party” to Atiku to contest the 2007 presidential election, saying the Action Congress (AC) emerged from a broader political coalition.
Ibe made the clarification in a Facebook post on Friday, after Arise News anchor, Rufai Oseni asserted on ‘The Morning Show’ that Tinubu helped Atiku secure the AC platform in 2007.
Ibe said there has been “considerable misinformation” about how the AC emerged.
He said, “The claim that then Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu simply ‘donated his party’ to then Vice President Atiku Abubakar to contest the 2007 presidential election. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
According to him, the AC was formed in 2006 from a political realignment involving the Tinubu-led faction of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), the Justice Party and other smaller groups, in the aftermath of the battle against President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third-term ambition.
He listed prominent figures on the AD side as Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Chief Adebayo Adefarati.
On the ACD/PDP breakaway side were Atiku, Audu Ogbeh, Lawal Kaita, Bashir Dalhatu, Gali Na’Abba and others.
Citing Akande’s autobiography, Ibe noted that the pioneer National Chairman of the AC wrote, “In 2007, we formed a party, the AC with Abubakar Atiku.”
Akande also reportedly disclosed that the understanding was for Atiku to be the presidential candidate, with Tinubu potentially as his running mate — a pairing that did not materialise because Atiku was not inclined to a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Ibe added that Chief Tom Ikimi’s account similarly describes the AC as a coalition of the PDP breakaway group and the AD faction, not a Tinubu party handed over to Atiku.
Ibe also faulted the claim that Atiku never reciprocated Tinubu’s political support.
He said Atiku has acknowledged his longstanding political relationship with Tinubu dating back to the PDM era, and explained during the 2023 campaign that he remained true to that relationship.
He recalled that in 2003, when the PDP-led Obasanjo administration sought to sweep the AD out of the South-West, Lagos survived the onslaught.
Atiku has publicly spoken of standing by his friendship with Tinubu rather than supporting efforts to dislodge him.
“So the history is not one of Tinubu simply giving Atiku a political platform and receiving nothing in return. Atiku and Tinubu were political partners who exchanged political favours at different points,” Ibe stated.
He insisted the AC was the product of a broader coalition and realignment, not Tinubu’s personal property donated to Atiku.
“To reduce that complex history to a benefactor-beneficiary relationship is not merely an oversimplification; it is a distortion of the political record,” he said.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), is seeking to stop Tinubu, who is the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), from securing a second term in 2027.
