Buhari in Lagos recounts Obasanjo’s diabolical double-cross against Akande

BY KAZIE UKO

President Muhammadu Buhari chose the worst adjectives he could muster as he recounted on Thursday the role played by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in sweeping former Osun State governor, Pa Bisi Akande, from office and ensuring victory for his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in 2003.

Buhari, in Lagos, at the public presentation of ‘My Participations’, the autobiography of Pa Akande, said Akande’s gubernatorial career as an Alliance for Democracy (AD) governor was truncated by Obasanjo’s devilish antics.

“It is common knowledge that Akande was the victim – along with other AD Governors – of a diabolical double-cross which ended his gubernatorial career. Only the steadfast Asiwaju Bola Tinubu escaped the electoral massacre masterminded by President Obasanjo.

“Desperately disappointed though he was, and being a good Muslim, he accepted this setback as part of the trials of life. He looked to the future of service to the country,” President Buhari told his audience, among whom were Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

RELIABLESOURCENG.COM reports that the president in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, recalled his first meeting with Akande, his passion for Nigeria, achievements, and disappointment as governor of Osun State, as well as his many battles to wrest power from the then ruling party, PDP.

He said: “My first personal contact with Chief Akande was, if I recall correctly, in 2006 when preliminary consultations were coming to fruition for a grand coalition to unseat the PDP Government.

“Those efforts eventually came to nothing.

“Neither he, nor I, nor many of our friends and associates gave up as, in Chief Akande’s words: ‘The country was going down and down under PDP’ (p.396 of My Participations).

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Reminiscing on APC’s overthrow of PDP’s hegemony in 2015, Buhari said: “Chief Akande was in the thick of further attempts in 2011 and 2014 to fuse together different groups and dislodge PDP from governance.

“The key to his thinking which coincides with mine is that Nigeria can only be successfully managed by alliances between major groups.

“Although we failed in 2011 but by persistence and knowledge that PDP was driving the country towards disaster, several major parties were able to finally coalesce into APC in 2014.

“Chief Akande was unanimously chosen as the first Chairman of this great coalition.

“Throughout the difficult negotiations, I found Akande truthful, steady and always with an eye to the ultimate goal.

“In or out of office, he has retained his inflexible integrity. On p.400 of his book, he wrote: ‘I never gave to or demanded bribe from anyone all my life.’ A perfect gentleman. A perfect public officer.

Quoting a famous Hausa saying, Labarin zucciya a tambayi fuska (loosely translated – if you want to know what is in a man’s heart watch his face), President Buhari affirmed that Akande has a permanent smile on his face, saying, “He is the type I will go into the jungle with.”

The president recommended the book to students of Nigerian politics and the general public alike, saying, “This book is a historical document. Students will find this an invaluable source of Nigeria’s politics, notably between 1999 and 2020.”