Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, says he warned APC Presidential candidate Bola Tinubu that President Muhammadu Buhari wasn’t going to keep his words to him, long before the intrigues and power play that preceded the presidential primary elections of 2022.
Ahead of the presidential primary contest, it was clear from President Buhari’s body language and unspoken words, that Tinubu wasn’t his preferred aspirant.
In his final pitch to delegates in southwestern Ogun State in June, a combative Tinubu yanked off the gloves and told the world that he made Buhari President; and that it was his turn to be supported by Buhari to become President–birthing the now viral Emi lokan slogan.
It was a meltdown that was heard and felt round the nation.
“If I didn’t lead from the battlefront, Buhari wouldn’t have won the 2015 election. Buhari contested and lost the presidential election three times and cried on national television. He even said on television that he won’t contest again,” Tinubu huffed and puffed as he pulled his agbada this way and that; unsafe in the knowledge that Buhari had abandoned him.
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The Yoruba socio-political group leader, Adebanjo, tells Quest Times in an exclusive chat in his Lagos home, that he warned Tinubu that Buhari was going to abandon him ahead of the elections.
Adebanjo and Afenifere have since thrown their weight behind Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, instead of Tinubu who is one of their own.
Adebanjo says supporting Obi, an Igbo man, rather than Tinubu, a Yoruba man, has everything to do with equity, justice and fairness because the southeastern region is yet to produce a civilian president since Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999.
“I made it possible for Tinubu to be Governor (of Lagos). He confirmed it on my 90th birthday. Tinubu is like my son. It’s an insult to say I am fighting him,” Adebanjo says.
“What people don’t know is that Afenifere and myself, we have developed principles. If I was going to be tribalistic, a person who through me, God made him the governor of Lagos, I should be happy for him to emerge the President of Nigeria. But it’s not fair.
“And I have said it before, Tinubu gave me all the respect I deserve. He is very liberal to me. There is no Christmas…ever, that he doesn’t give me presents. Even during COVID-19, he gave me presents. But that is not the question. That is what Ayo Adebanjo is.”
94-year-old Adebanjo adds that: “I advised Tinubu in my room here that don’t believe Buhari o, he’s deceiving you. I said Fulanis, don’t believe them.
“It is because a Fulani promised you that when I leave, I will make you the president, that is what led to Emi lokan. Igbo lokan o! It is between you and Buhari–Iwo lokan. You and Buhari you don’t know Nigeria. Nigeria says Igbo lokan.
“Emi lokan is between you and Buhari. Go and settle your Buhari affair,” he reiterated.