By Gideon Njoku
“Tinubu’s boast of installing Buhari is bullsh.t – Babachir Lawal
The Presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is in trouble. Tinubu has talked himself into a self-destructive position. And, he is losing his supporters in the North.
One of them is his die-hard loyalist, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.
In a statement he released on Friday, Lawal slammed Tinubu for ridiculing President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Ogun State.
Speaking while he was in Ogun State to Presidential delegates to the Presidential Primaries of the All Progressives Congress, Tinubu said that without him, Buhari wouldn’t have been President. He noted how Buhari failed three times, and said on National Television that he was no longer running, and reminded that it was him who convinced Buhari, and made him President.
Tinubu had said: “If not me that led the war front, Buhari would not have emerged. He contested first, second and third times, but lost. He even said on television that he would not contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina, I told him you would contest and win, but ‘you would not joke with Yoruba matters.
“Since he has emerged, I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get a contract.
“This time, it’s the Yoruba’s turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my tenure.”
But Lawal has faulted Tinubu’s claims and dismissed it as “buckshit”. Hev told Tinubu that Buhari’s ascendancy was a combination of the efforts of many people across the country, and not Tinubu’s exclusive. He wondered why Tinubu should boast about a project that was not his alone and take credit for it.
He said Tinubu’s public denigration of Buhari has sparked anger in the North. He also decried the seeming “Yorubanisation” of Tinubu’s aspiration and said it makes those of them supporting him look like traitors.
Lawal: “Sometimes, it is very difficult to support a Yoruba person in National politics. They have a way of making you regret your support because they eventually make you seem like a traitor to your own people.”
Lawal’s strongly worded State reads in part:
“Sometimes it is very difficult to support a Yoruba person in national politics if you are not one.
“They have a way of making you regret your support because they eventually make you seem like a traitor to your own people.
“Now, all these comments about Bola’s Yoruba presidency and his support of Buhari without which Buhari would not have been president is bulshit.
“He wasn’t the only one whose support made a difference. There were many others from all around the country and they are not bragging about it.
“You may wish to know that all of us Buhari supporters are shocked and pissed off by Bola’s speech on this occasion. It is unlike him.
“And this speech is massively trending in the North and being given a negative connotation as you can well imagine. I first read it this morning on an Adamawa group platform and the anger is palpable and all round.
“You would think Yorubas will resist the temptation of joining in the northerners-bashing game at this very critical time – the primary election is only three days away. It is unfortunate that Bola himself chose to join in this bashing game – choosing to speak in the Yoruba language and in Yoruba land in a manner that seems to denigrate Buhari. I could vividly imagine the discomfort of all the northerners sitting beside him on that podium.
“This appears to be the Abiola saga being replayed. Abiola won the election with majority Northern votes but they took the brunt of the post-election protests that followed.
“Just survey all the people that are doing more meaningful practical things to enthroned Bola as president and you will find that almost all are northerners while his kinsmen engage themselves social media activism and Northern bashing.
“When Yorubas vilify the North like this, our sense of fear and insecurity under a Yoruba presidency gets heightened and in the end, pushes us to rethink our support for not only Bola but any Yoruba as president for that matter.”
