Governor Abiodun Hits Back At Tinubu, Calls Him Emperor

By Adesina Soyooye

The Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has decently hit back at former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over what has been interpreted as a public humiliation of the Governor by Tinubu.

On a visit to Ogun State on Thursday, June 2, to hunt for delegates, Tinubu, a Presidential aspirant, in what looked and sounded like signs of desperation and frustration that the plum ticket could slip out of his hands, descended on President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and his host, Governor Abiodun.

Speaking to the delegates in Yoruba, Tinubu said he made the three men. Without him, he said, Buhari  wouldn’t have been the President. He reminded them of Buhari’s failures. He told them that that Buhari had failed three times, wept on National Television, and said he would never contest for the office of the President again. He said it took him to convince Buhari to contest, and that he was the one who installed him.

Taking on Osinbajo, he told his audience that he was the one who hand-picked him, and gave him to Buhari as his running mate. He said initially, Buhari had asked him, Tinubu, to run with him, but that the plan was scuttled by former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, who was against a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Turning to Abiodun, he noted that he, Tinubu, had been serving the Yoruba in the past 25 years, and

then noted: “This one sitting here”, you couldn’t have been Governor  without me. He reminded the Governor of what happened on the day of the Primaries, how Abiodun’s posters were being pulled down.

Finally, he said it is the turn of the Yoruba to be President, but that turn remains his sole turn.

On Friday, Abiodun who sat through the humiliation, reacted to Tinubu. He decently, and indirectly called Tinubu an Emperor without mentioning Tinubu’s  name. He also noted that Ogun State is not a family enterprise but a public one.

Abiodun in a post: “I am not an Emperor by any chance and this is not my family inheritance. I am holding this position in trust for all the people of the State, and I have vowed to be fair, just and equitable and this is the solemn agreement  I made between the Almighty God and myself.”

Abiodun and Ogun State delegates had earlier pledged their votes to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, an Ogun State indigene, and a Presidential aspirant.