The Lagos State House of Assembly has faulted the President Muhammadu Buhari-led presidency of showing “a sign of disrespect” for a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, asserting that the former Lagos governor’s contributions to the emergence of the APC can never be shoved aside.
Drumming support for Tinubu in the wake of the recent rift between him and APC’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the lawmakers at yesterday’s plenary held that nobody can whittle down the political power and influence of Tinubu.
Tinubu had asked Oyegun to vacate the office of the National Chairman, saying he was no longer fit to hold the position on the basis of manner he handled the party’s Ondo governorship primary election. Oyegun retorted by describing the content of Tinubu’s widely publicized statement as “reckless and baseless”.
The Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Tunde Braimoh, joined by his colleagues had questioned the presidency’s “silence” over the development, especially given the “years of sacrifice and financial commitments” Tinubu gave to the emergence of APC.
The lawmakers noted that an insult to the personality of Tinubu was synonymous to insulting the entire Yoruba race, especially given the leadership role he (Tinubu) has played in the unification of the Yoruba nation.
“The situation does not speak well for the internal democracy of our party and efforts must be made by stakeholders to arrive at a quick resolution.
“To achieve this, we call on the party’s leadership to call the executives to order with a view to ensuring that adequate respect and honour is given to party leaders, including Asiwaju Tinubu,” Braimoh said.
In his contribution, the Deputy Majority Leader, Muyiwa Jimoh noted that the “ongoing fight is not just against Tinubu, but against vision and posterity”, stressing that “Asiwaju Tinubu is too big a personality for anybody to toy with”.
On his part, the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa argued that rather than be seen as apathetic to the development, President Muhammadu Buhari should play the role of a father and unite everybody.
“The signal coming from the presidency is not good enough. Appointments have been made without Tinubu’s knowledge and major decisions have been made without adequate consideration given for his view and opinion. We believe this is not good enough and it is a sign of disrespect for a personality like Tinubu, whose contributions to the consummation of APC in Nigeria can never be brushed aside,” Obasa said.
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