Adebanjo said: “I told Tinubu himself, not in the papers, face-to-face. ‘You believe this man (Buhari) will make you President?’ He said ‘yes’. I said ‘he wants to make you President and yet he asked (Yemi) Osinbajo to contest? He asked (Kayode) Fayemi to contest, he asked Amosun (Ibikunle) to contest?’ All in the West, why? He wants to divide the West first.”
Prominent Yoruba leader, Ayo Adebanjo, has asked a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, to bury the idea of becoming Nigeria’s president because President Muhammadu Buhari will never support him.
Adebanjo said Tinubu, instead of pursuing a failed project, should joined forces with other progressives to ensure that the South East produce the next president in the interest of justice and equity.
Adebanjo said this on Monday in his remarks at the “Greater Nigeria Conference” organised by the Nzuko Nmunna, an Igbo think-tank.
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The focus of discussions at the conference was on the need to support a candidate from the South East in the 2023 general elections.
According to Adebanjo, it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next president in the interest of fairness and equity.
He said, “We all know the truth. They don’t want the South-East. It is not because they don’t know what is right. I only like to point to the fact that they are just deceiving you. All you are hearing, that they (the North) are supporting the South-West is an element of deceit to deprive you, to be able to rule you. They don’t like anybody.
“I told Tinubu himself, not in the papers, face-to-face. ‘You believe this man (Buhari) will make you President?’ He said ‘yes’. I said ‘he wants to make you President and yet he asked (Yemi) Osinbajo to contest? He asked (Kayode) Fayemi to contest, he asked Amosun (Ibikunle) to contest?’ All in the West, why? He wants to divide the West first.
“The unfortunate thing is that President Goodluck Jonathan allowed himself to be disgraced by mentioning the fact that ‘I am considering whether to be president or not. For what?
“Now that it is the turn of the South-East, they are propounding a new theory, it must be based on merit and all that. If it is the question of merit, who in the North qualifies to lead Nigeria? If it has been based on merit, the East alone would produce the President.
“I am saying all these because of the talks about ‘go and sell yourself, go and campaign, go and lobby’, it is all rigmarole. They know the truth.
“Although I don’t like all the people that came out from the East, for the fact that they are saying you have no people, I am happy you have demonstrated that you have people. But go and unite. A house divided against itself will not stand. The North doesn’t want to leave power. While the South is slugging it out, they put their candidate up.”