2023: Tinubu Tackles Prof Akintoye; Says Elder Statesman’s Statement, Poor, Malicious

By Akinwale Kasali

The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has tackled an elder Statesman, Prof Banji Akintoye, over the latter’s opinion of his Presidential ambition.

Akintoye, the Leader of the Yoruba Nation Self-Determination Struggle, had on Thursday in a release, said that Tinubu’s presidential ambition was personal and not for the welfare of the Yoruba people.

The elder statesman said that the former Lagos State Governor is bent on succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari for personal reasons and not to champion the cause of the Yoruba people.

“Our history will judge that at a time when our nation needs to stand up and defend itself, you started to bring up an agenda; a personal agenda of your own before them. You are asking us to vote for you.

“We will not vote for you. Whether it is for the Presidency or the Senate or House of Rep or whatever, we will not vote for you. We would have taken our country out of Nigeria by then. So, we advise you now to return to your people. I am advising you now, to return to your people and wash your soul clean. You are doing an unpardonable thing.”

However, Director, Media and Publicity, Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, has labeled Akintoye’s statement as malicious and unwarranted, stressing that his Principal is in the Presidential race to serve Nigerians and revamp the economy of the nation.

A statement by Onanuga titled, ‘Professor Banji Akintoye’s Misdirected Aggression’ reads:

“Our attention has been drawn to an unfortunate, misdirected, misplaced and divisive statement credited to Prof Banji Akintoye, in which his group threatened to pull the South West out of Nigeria.

“To be candid, there are several agitation groups in the South West and in other parts of Nigeria who wrongly think the best way to demand justice and fairness is through the break-up of our country.

“And since there has been no referendum held in Yorubaland about whether to stay in Nigeria or not and no such referendum has been held in any part of Nigeria, it is then appropriate to assume that this separatist idea is Akintoye and his group’s sole idea.

“We join other bonafide and critical stakeholders in Yorubaland to advise Prof Akintoye not to plunge our people into a needless and precipitate crisis or create another Rwanda.”

Onanuga also faulted Akintoye’s argument that Tinubu is pursuing personal interest.

He continued, “We find it quite preposterous the Professor’s sweeping outlandish accusation that Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu is only pursuing his PERSONAL interest in running for the presidency of Nigeria. Such a statement is malicious and unwarranted. It is pertinent to state that Asiwaju Tinubu is contesting for Nigeria’s presidency because of his readiness to render unflinching service to Nigerians and because of his abiding faith in a strong, united and prosperous Nigeria where every man and woman, regardless of their ethnicity and religious beliefs, can be proud and prosperous.

“Most of the issues around the structure of our federalism raised in Prof Akintoye’s poorly thought-out statement have been sufficiently addressed in Asiwaju’s Action Plan with his promise to address some of the problems plaguing our federalism and the will to make the states more viable as federating units by devolving more powers to them.”