2023: No One Can Force Me to Support Tinubu, Says Ojudu
Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has said no criticism could force him to support the presidential ambition of a former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023.
Ojudu said he would not surrender to threats being issued by some people to him and members of his family, labelling him as a betrayal, adding that he remained a principled politician, who is able to make choices without coercion.
The Presidential Adviser said this in a statement, yesterday, in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, where he made his position known on the coming 2023 presidential run and Tinubu’s ambition.
He said he had worked with Tinubu as pro-democracy activists during the dark days of military before the advent of democracy and had always perceived the former governor as a leader and which he would always do, despite not supporting his presidential ambition.
“I and Bola Tinubu 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’s 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.
“As a third year university student, my dad chose to be in NPN. I never considered the fact that he fed me and paid my school fees to join him in a party I despised. I went to UPN and became a youth leader.
“Tinubu will tell you that whatever and whoever Ojudu is committed to is in for 100 per cent commitment. Reasons I did rather face torture and possible death in General Sani Abacha’s detention than reveal certain things they wanted me to reveal about him.”
Ojudu urged, therefore, some of Tinubu’s supporters to stop the erroneous impression that everyone, who had related with Tinubu and disagreed with him on this Presidential bid was a traitor and betrayer, describing such as puerile and arbitrary.
He added that contrary to widespread view, many of Tinubu’s associates were not made by the former governor, saying he was already making wave in the journalism world before meeting with the former governor.
“We were already made before meeting him and in the cause 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.
“I walked out of my job, when Chief MKO Abiola requested I and my colleagues to apologise to General Ibrahim Babangida over a story critical of the regime.