President Bola Tinubu has declared that he’s clearing the mess the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar created while he was the Vice President of Nigeria.

Tinubu accused Atiku of privatizing government investment while in government but forgot to pay pension.

He disclosed this during a meeting with the Nigerian Diaspora Medical Association and the Northeast stakeholders for renomination Kashim Shettima as his vice presidential running mate.

According to Tinubu: “There is nowhere like home. I have experienced being in America and have taken the best of America in my chosen profession, accountancy and finance. Where can I apply it best after initial training with Deloitte & Touche, I can’t forget the standard oil building in Chicago and my first week there.

“The leadership of the Northeast is challenged because of terrorism and banditry, I could see a collaboration that would work together. Only we stick together, work together, and face the challenges the best way possible as a united country.

“The olden age is here now if you can stabilize the economy, Nigerians are not asking for too much, simple stability and social welfare, if I can go political, somebody among my prospective opponents privatized government investment in public entities but forgot to pay the pension. I’m clearing the pensioners now, so clearing the mess they created.”

By James Ogunnaike, ABEOKUTA

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, faulted claims made by former Ogun State Governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, that he deceived leaders of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, during the political realignments leading to the 2003 general elections, insisting that he neither misled anyone nor acted in bad faith.

The former President, in a letter dated July 23, 2026, titled ‘Reply to your inaccurate posture: ‘How Obasanjo deceived us in 2003’, described Osoba’s account, published in The Legal Observer on July 20, as “farfetched” and riddled with inaccuracies, omissions and misconceptions.

Obasanjo took particular exception to Osoba’s allegation that he deceived Yoruba political leaders, insisting that his political engagements had always been guided by openness and national interest.

He said: “I take strong and serious objection to your calling me a deceiver because I deceived nobody. I always presented my case and all issues as I had them and as I understood them, no matter whose ox is gored.”

Obasanjo argued that several political developments preceding his emergence as President in 1999 were unknown to Osoba because they were handled by senior leaders of Afenifere and the AD.

Recalling his engagements with the late Afenifere leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Obasanjo said despite being repeatedly told that Yoruba people would not vote for him, he continued to maintain cordial relations with the elder statesman.

He said: “There was no time I called on Papa Adesanya that I was not well entertained. Yet Papa stood on no vote for me, and I stood on my respect and what was due to him.

“Bringing PDP and AD to join me for a sort of national government was not out of weakness; rather, it was out of strength and for the unity and progress of the country.”

He also rejected Osoba’s account of events surrounding the attempted impeachment of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Ghali Na’Abba, alleging instead that the impeachment plot originated from within his administration.

He said: “The game continued to be played on with me treating it with contempt as I had committed no impeachable offence.”

On the 2003 elections, Obasanjo disputed Osoba’s suggestion that the defeat of AD governors resulted from political manipulation by the Presidency.

He said: “Your loss or defeat in 2003 was genuine in all the six states except the one where the figures were successfully and murderously changed. I have never believed in tribal politics.”

While criticising Osoba’s interpretation of events, the former President acknowledged the former governor’s contributions to Ogun State and to the establishment of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, OOPL, in Abeokuta.

He commended Osoba for allocating the land on which the library stands, describing it as a landmark project that has benefited the state.

“The greatest service you rendered for me is the land allocated by you for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library. It has become the most significant landmark in Abeokuta. Politics may end, relationships may live till life’s end, there is no end to humility and thanksgiving”, he said.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) welcomes President Bola Tinubu’s creation of four new Army divisions across the country, a statement says.

The statement says the simultaneous creation of four new divisions is the largest single expansion of the Nigerian Army in modern history, adding that the bold step shows the President’s renewed commitment to security of lives and property.

“We wholeheartedly welcome this development, including the president’s approval for the Army to hire 28,000 new personnel and acquire more critical military assets. We are confident that this initiative will enhance the government’s counterterrorism and anti-banditry efforts,” according to the statement.

The Forum pledges its continued support for and collaboration with the President on national security and all other issues of national development.

“The Forum again urges citizens to continue to support government and security forces to strengthen security in every part of the country, including giving timely information to the security agencies,” the statement says.