Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, said that party discipline would be upheld in addressing the leadership tussle of the 9th National Assembly.

Tinubu said this while speaking with newsmen in Lagos on Friday after a Prayer Programme organised by Islamic and Christian clerics to mark his 67th birthday.

“Party discipline is key, we must be disciplined in the party. We were a little careless in 2015. We created the opportunity for serpent to get into our party and that did not allow Nigeria to make the desired progress.

“You have seen the result of it and we are not going to allow that to happen again. We are going to respect our party and we are going to apply the whip.

“It is either you stay with us or you follow us or you leave. You have the freedom to choose but the freedom does not give you as a minority to go and collaborate and protrude our mandate given to you to another party who was our opposition and who is still our opposition.

“We would not take that this time, no matter who you think you are. That is how it is built. Why do you want to deviate from what has been structured?

“We look at our reward system equally, zone by zone,” he said.

Tinubu said that his life as a politician at 67 had been a fulfilling journey.

“When I joined politics, there were a lot of uncertainties because it was during the military regime. There were lots of struggles but my concern is about people and the future of my country.

“My mother stood by me when I told her then that I was joining politics. She told me to be ready to take all sorts of insults whenever they cross my way. May her soul rest in peace.

“The struggle was tough. It created a justice on June 12 election of MKO and some people deserted the camp, the struggle, the spirit.

“We have stayed with this struggle. We know democracy is not easy but it is the only system of government that we chose.

“Ever since, it has been a very fulfilling journey. There is always the twist and turns in politics.

“Today, we endure, we persevere, we think, adjust, collaborate, merged and became single party just like yesterday,” he said.

Tinubu said that the APC party was in government for the common man.

“You will think that APC had been on for twenty years but is not up to six years. We went through compromises because we know that if we form a good alliance of progressive thinkers and believers in the ideology of common man, we will be able to serve the people.

“It is not by criticism alone. You have to have the opportunity to even change the life of the people and quality of their standard of living.

“So, we stood by it, we persevered persistently, uttered our voice, offered our recommendations, and then we are here. And today I am extremely happy that we are in government for the common man.

“The only way to change Nigeria from penury is to fashion out our own organic economic strategy and plan that will continue to cater for all,” he said. (NAN)