I’ll Not Support Tinubu’s Presidential Ambition – Osinbajo’s Aide

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has said although Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is his political leader, he will not support him to be president of Nigeria.

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Ojudu, who represented Ekiti Central Senatorial District at the 8th Senate, said his position did not amount to betrayal of the APC leader who recently declared to run for presidency in 2023.

The presidential aide, who works directly with the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, said this in a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

Ojudu, who was said to have been given the Ekiti Central Senatorial District ticket of the then Action Congress of Nigeria at the expense of the present Senator representing the senatorial district, Opeyemi Bamidele, said he was a successful publisher before he met Tinubu.

Ojudu said, ” Bola Tinubu and I have come a long way and we have been there for each other. So let no one use my acknowledgment of his good deeds and my refusal not to support him in his bid for Nigeria presidency to portray me as a betrayer.

“Tinubu remains my leader and I will forever cherish him and the contributions he made to my organisation during our fight against the military. He however knows I don’t follow the herd. I make my choices based on very rigid parameters . He will tell you I am very Independent in my actions and ways.

“The idea that everyone who has related with Tinubu and disagrees with him on this Presidential bid is a traitor and a betrayer is puerile. Many of us, his associates, were not made by him as you also want the world to believe.

“We were already made before meeting him and in the course of relating we gave one another a helping hand. As far back as 1992 when I came to know him I was already one of the editors of a popular news magazine with a good standing too in the civil society.”

The Presidential aide said he, as a secondary school pupil, disagreed politically with his father who he said supported the National Party of Nigeria while he supported the Unity Party of Nigeria.

Ojudu said he has made up his mind not to support Tinubu in the APC primary and nobody could threaten him to change his mind on that.

He said, “On this matter of 2023, I wish him well but I cannot in good conscience give him my support or cast my vote for him in the coming primary. It is my right. I am above 60 years of age for God sake. I almost died seeking these inalienable democratic rights, held up in detention and severally tortured. Your god is not my god.

“Let no one think he can browbeat or blackmail me to do what does not go with my conscience or my ideals. Enough of your phone threats and embarrassment of my family members!

“When I left that job, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a man whom I was indebted to greatly (gave me a scholarship in my school days alongside King Sunny Ade) invested in my publishing platform (The News, publisher of PM news). The same one that was consequential in the battle to bring democracy back to Nigeria.

“At the conclusion of that struggle, Chief Fawehinmi insisted we sit out politics. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu disagreed with this notion, and I did as well. Against an obvious choice to blind loyalty, I went along with Senator Tinubu even serving severally in critical roles as he assumed the Governorship position. My actions angered Chief Gani so much he asked that I repay his investments. Guess what? I gladly did.”

“So if my principled stance against NPN, against IBB and against ‘siddon look’ was not betrayal of my father, Chief MKO Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi respectively, why would my principled stance against our leader’s present ambition be?”