Mr. Kehinde Olaosebikan, former Chief Press Secretary to Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State, has disputed the claim by the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that he was the one that made President Bola Ahmed Tinubu win a second term as governor of Lagos State in 2023.
Atiku made the claim in his publicize world conference on Thursday October 5, 2023 in Abuja.
Olaosebikan, in a statement he issued in Abuja Friday October 6, said that the assertion by Atiku was totally untrue and another failed attempt to mislead the world and particularly to win sympathy that President Tinubu was indebted to him.
The ace journalist who had written articles on the unique victory of Tinubu in the gubernatorial election of 2003 maintained, that the then Governor Tinubu won the election against all the obstacles put in his way by the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo led Federal Government owing to his uncommon political sagacity, the trust and love he had earned from his Lagos people.
Also, he stated that Alhaji Abubakar as the Vice President then had lost potency in government as a result of the discovery of the startling betrayal he displayed towards the second term bid of Obasanjo who had at the onset of the government in 1999 virtually handed over all the political powers to Atiku not knowing that he would use the powers against him.
For the palpably rattled and bitter Atiku to now again at his highly-hyped world press conference claim that he made the Obasanjo government to spare Lagos for Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the fallacy of the century when the reasons why Tinubu won in Lagos, against all the odds have long been well placed in the public space.
Olaosebikan said that he had fully explained in his article ‘What Lam Adesina Told Me About Tinubu and His Rare Ability To Win Against All Odds’ like many other well informed Nigerians, how President Bola Tinubu refused to follow his five other governors of the South West in the deceits and inveigling of President Obasanjo to conquer the six south western states in 2003.
Olaosebikan who served as the Zonal Coordinator of Media and Publicity, South West for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, said it was illogical and fallacious for Alhaji Abubakar to assert that he and Obasanjo “spared” Lagos for Tinubu considering what Tinubu suffered in the hands of the former President and the severities the former Lagos State Governor went through in winning that election.
According to him: “Obasanjo had in the most deceitful manner, cajoled the governors and the Pan Yoruba group, Afenifere in believing that he (Obasanjo) would be “soft” on them and make their victories easy insofar as they supported his election for a second term in office. The five governors fell for Obasanjo’s antics and openly worked for his second term in office. In fact, the promotion of Obasanjo’s second term bid took precedence far above campaigns for our governorship and National Assembly candidates in the build up to the general elections of 2003.
“Despite the fact that we were in the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the opposition party, we campaigned vigorously for the second term of Olusegun Obasanjo and indirectly his Peoples Democratic Party’s candidates who eventually defeated us. I was a victim as the AD candidate for House of Representatives, Oluyole Federal Constituency.
“With heavy music and beautiful lyrics we introduced a new dimension, new lexicon to our politics: we birthed splitting of votes; Aremu Oke and Aremu Isale. Vote one for Aremu at the top (Obasanjo for President) and one for Aremu at the bottom, state (Alhaji Lam Adesina). But at the end of the day, General Obasanjo trounced us, with the deployment of all the tricks and antics you can think of.
“But, in Lagos, Tinubu in his wisdom refused to follow either his fellow governors or Afenifere in supporting Obasanjo, and instead answered his father’s name. He campaigned only for his party, the Alliance for Democracy. He asked voters to concentrate all their votes at the top, the space for AD on the ballot papers in all the elections.
“As we were rollicking to the lovely melody of Aremu Oke and Aremu Isale in the South West, from Ibadan to Saki, Ogbomosho, Tede, Idere and so on, particularly in Oyo State, the people of Lagos State were ‘eating to the top’ (won un Jeun Soke). And in the real sense of it they actually ate well and this is evident, till today, in the yarning gaps in riches and wealth between the people of Lagos and those in other parts of Yoruba Land.
“With the enormous powers of the Presidency, particularly under the leadership of Olusegun Obasanjo who was touted to have possessed and exercised more powers than the American President at his time, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu crushed Obasanjo in all aspects of governance. He challenged Obasanjo on legislative matters and he won; he contested against Obasanjo’s position on judiciary and made mincemeat of him; and in Obasanjo’s desperate bid to conquer Lagos State along with other Yoruba state, Tinubu triumphed over Obasanjo and still beating him till today.
“Even, if Atiku had been a friend of President Bola Tinubu then wanting to help him, what was he then to approach Obasanjo to spare Lagos for Tinubu. And also in which way did all the elucidated pragmatic and solid political moves of the then Lagos State Governor sync with Atiku’s claim of sparing Lagos for Tinubu. I think our respected former Vice President should accept defeat, safe himself from further humiliation and ‘Gba fun Oga e,’ as we say it in Ibadan.”
