Former Jigawa governor, Sule Lamido, says members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari will work against the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 general elections.

“Tinubu may be a master tactician. He is a good guy in planning and propaganda, but then he is on the wrong political platform, and even the way he came out, the way he won the primaries, it is very clear that even members of the APC are going to vote against him.”

Mr Lamido, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in a Vanguard interview that Mr Buhari’s loyalists were bent on punishing Mr Tinubu for his remarks about the president in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

Mr Tinubu, on June 2 in Abeokuta, recounted how he turned Mr Buhari from a serial and sore election loser to becoming president in 2015. His comment was condemned by APC chairman Abdullahi Adamu, who vowed to punish him for insulting the president.

“I am being honest because of the issue of pride and their chairman who said they are going to punish Tinubu for making some uncomplimentary remarks about the President,” Mr Lamido said while explaining why he thinks the APC candidate will lose the election.

Meanwhile, recall that Mr Lamido was one of the loudest opponents against zoning the 2023 PDP presidential ticket, paving the way for the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the PDP presidential candidate ahead of next year. 

On how Mr Abubakar would defeat Mr Tinubu in the 2023 elections, Mr Lamido explained: “There are two dimensions to this. One is about emotions, divisions and religion, but I don’t want to go into divisive politics. The other one is the question of platform.”

Retelling the history of the formation of the political parties in 1998 till date, Mr Lamido said that the ruling APC cannot “match the history of the PDP…”