Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has decried the lies told against him by some supporters of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
If a number of people were taken aback that Tinubu had the courage to visit Obasanjo, apparently, to seek support for his Presidential aspiration, considering that Tinubu had, months back, dragged Obasanjo in the gutter, they were more surprised read that Obasanjo endorsed Tinubu during that visit.
The story of the endorsement had gone viral, pushed, especially, by the pronouncement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was among those who accompanied Tinubu to visit Obasanjo in Abeokuta a couple of days ago.
Gbajabiamila, narrating to his Surulere Consttuents what transpired between Obasanjo and Tinubu during the visit, more than hinted that Obasanjo endorsed Tinubu’s aspiration. With what Obasanjo told Tinubu, Gbajabiamila told his constituents, Tinubu has already become the President.
Presidential candidates in Nigeria have a habit of visiting some high profile Nigerians, including Traditional Rulers, to seek for support. So Tinubu did nothing out of the ordinary by visiting Obasanjo.
However, such high profile hosts rarely endorse their guests. They usually wish the aspirants the best in their aspiration. Which was why the story that emanated from Tinubu’s camp after the visit surprised not a few people.
However, Obasanjo has debunked the story of his endorsement of Tinubu. He dismissed Tinubu’s supporters who peddled the story of the endorsement by him as liars. He warned them to desist from such lies, and disclosed that their discussion never got to the stage of endorsement. He dismissed the claims as unauthorised and fake.
In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Saturday, the former Presient noted that “the statements coming from those claiming to be supporters of Bola Tinubu are unhelpful.”
He explained that the discussion between the two of them was more brotherly than political, adding that at the behest of Tinubu, he, Obasanjo “agreed to no statement from either side.”
Obasanjo: “Those claiming to be insiders at the meeting issuing statement on the discussion and those crediting to me statement I had not made are enemies of the visitor and are not doing the visit any good.”
Obasanjo was a two-term President of Nigeria under the PDP. But in 2015, he declared himself ”partyless”, and in an unprecedented action at his level, tore his PDP membership card.
He, then, supported the then opposition party, APC, and its Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, to defeat the ruling PDP and the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
From all his utterances since after Buhari’s first term in office, Obasanjo seems to have regretted backing Buhari.
In 2019, he backed the Presidential candidate of the PDP, his former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. But Buhari still held sway, earning a second term.
Against 2023, Atiku is, again the candidate of the PDP. It is not known, yet, who Obasanjo will back.
However, political analysts insist it is not likely to be Tinubu.
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