Love him or hate him, Bola Tinubu is an accomplished politician and leader. Long live Jagaban. Long live Nigeria and of course long live nairaland.

The first Secretary to the Alhaji Lateef Jakande-led Lagos State Government, Chief Olorunfunmi Basorun, speaks to ENIOLA AKINKUOTU about the debate over Yoruba leadership and other political issues

You were a top member of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s party, the Unity Party of Nigeria. Do you agree with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s argument that there can never be a Yoruba leader?

The Yoruba leader now, without doubt, is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and there are many reasons for this. The leadership of the Yoruba, whether political or otherwise, is based on who has advanced the interest of the Yoruba the most in recent times and Tinubu has done this. Firstly, he has fought for the interest of the Yoruba people. He helped Kayode Fayemi to get his governorship bid back in Ekiti in 2010. In the same year, he helped Rauf Aregbesola to get his governorship mandate back in Osun State.

He helped Olusegun Mimiko get his governorship mandate back in Ondo State in 2009. He even helped Adams Oshiomhole in Edo as well. That shows that his interest transcends personal preferences. In the political arena, he graduated and moved to ensure that Nigeria became virtually a two-party state. Because of Tinubu’s effort coupled with others’, the APC was born.

He led various others to ensure that the party did not die. Before the merger of the party, there was a quarrel between President Muhammadu Buhari and Rabiu Kwankwaso, who was then the Kano State Governor. Tinubu brought both of them to the table of reconciliation and settled it and the party emerged. That party, the APC, is in power today. The party now rules 22 states out of 36 in Nigeria and also produced the President. This shows Tinubu’s achievements in politics.

Even look at the South-West. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State were in different parties before 2011. Tinubu brought them into his party and they are now running a second term in their respective states.

During the last elections, Yoruba contributed 2.433m votes to Buhari’s presidency where Buhari got 15m. That constitutes about 16 per cent of Buhari’s votes and this kind of thing had never happened before. Even when Obasanjo was made President, he didn’t get more than one million votes in the South-West and in terms of percentage, it was insignificant. And in the process of negotiations, Tinubu got the position of the vice-president for the South-West. I cannot point to any other Yoruba leader today that has struggled for the Yoruba like Tinubu and succeeded.

But When Chief Obafemi Awolowo was named as the Yoruba leader, it was an unanimous decision by all notable Yoruba leaders at the time. Why is Tinubu’s own controversial?

By our age, one should assume that we knew what happened then. There was a lot of confusion after the second coup and there was a meeting. Awolowo gave two conditions. He said the army’s occupation of Lagos must end and that if the Igbo were compelled to secede, the South-West would go. These two statements, in the face of guns, encouraged those present at the meeting to proclaim Awolowo as the leader of the Yoruba that time. The environment then was different from the one that Tinubu is living in now. I am not saying that Tinubu is the same as Awolowo but they lived at different times. Chief Awolowo did many things based on the needs at that time. He built the first stadium in Nigeria, the first television station, the first to introduce free health and free education. These were the needs at that time and many people loved him but those who didn’t love him were many. Apart from Adisa Akinloye, after the second coup in 1966, could anybody from Ogbomoso pronounce Awolowo as the leader of the Yoruba people? No. Because they were still bitter about the way Ladoke Akintola died. So, those who are generalising and looking at the view of Awolowo’s supporters as the general mind of Yoruba people, forget that the Yoruba people never went in one direction. As we are talking about Tinubu now, there are some who hate him and do not hide it. But when you talk of Yoruba leadership, there will be the first among equals, and what I am saying is that Tinubu is the first among those who are carrying the Yoruba banner very high.

But Awolowo said there cannot be a Yoruba leader during the period of partisan politics but there can be a cultural leader. Are you saying that we can have a Yoruba leader now?

There are cultural leaders such as traditional rulers but on the issue of politics, there must always be a leader who can stick out his neck and fight for his people. Awolowo once said that a day will come when the masses in the North and South, Christians, Muslims will come together as a force for progress and unity and kick against rigging, corruption and that is what we are facing now. And we are happy that one of our own in the South-West is carrying out this prediction of Chief Awolowo. Why should he not be the leader of the Yoruba for now? Whether it is political leader or anything we want to call it, who has achieved what Tinubu has achieved?

Wouldn’t it be appropriate to call Obasanjo the Yoruba leader since he is the only Yoruba man to ever emerge as President?

He was President and he had greatness thrust upon him but he did not work for greatness. I took part in electing him because I was the founding chairman of the Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party. We went to him in Abeokuta and spoke to him when he just returned from prison but his first response was that he had become a born again Christian and had no interest in politics. So, he did not work to be President. Most of the Yoruba did not even want him. In the 1999 election, he was defeated at his polling unit. I took the pain to compile all the votes he got. He received about 1.1million votes in the South-West but most of the votes in the South-West came from Lagos. He got about 209,000 votes from Lagos. He got a few votes from other South-West states. As President, he performed to the best of his ability. But Obasanjo cannot match the intellectual capacity of Awolowo and Tinubu. So, Obasanjo is a chief and he is respected in Yoruba land but in the contemporary Nigeria today, Tinubu is the Yoruba leader. Even as President, Obasanjo was not called Yoruba leader at that time because he did not achieve anything on his own. It was a question of people helping him. Awolowo said this in the House of Representatives many years ago that some are born great, some achieve greatness while some have greatness thrust upon them. Tinubu achieved greatness while Obasanjo had greatness thrust upon him.
Source: The Punch 10 Sept. 2015 : http://www.punchng.com/politics/tinubu-greater-than-obasanjo-basorun/

A Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), on Wednesday denied claims that he hailed former President Goodluck Jonathan’s approach to war against corruption.

Falana, in a statement, said “some misguided fellows” attributed to him in his recent interview with Channels Television, a suggestion that the Jonathan administration fought corruption in a more civilised way.

“I challenge the reactionary forces that have twisted and manipulated my views to reproduce any statement made by me suggesting that President Jonathan fought corruption in a civilised manner,” he said.

He said the claim was part of a desperate move to discredit President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption policy and to link him with forces of corruption that were fighting back against the policy.

He said, “In a desperate move to discredit the anti-corruption programme of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, some misguided fellows have attempted to link me with the forces of corruption that are fighting back in the country.

“I was alleged to have “suggested” in an interview in the Channels Television that President Jonathan fought corruption in a more civilised manner than President Buhari. I never made such a stupid statement. Hence, the “suggestion” ascribed to me is grossly misleading and downright dishonest.”
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Falana had said in the interview that the National Peace Committee, led by a former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, was only protecting the interest of the rich.

He said in a statement on Wednesday that much that he said about Jonathan Administration’s fight against corruption was that the administration recovered $970m from the loot of the late former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

He said, “In accusing the influential members of the National Peace Committee of gargantuan hypocrisy, I did say that their Chairman, General Abbdulsami Abubakar, even probed the dead and recovered properties and over $1bn from the late Abacha loot which are contained in the Forfeiture Decree No 45 of 1999.

“With respect to President Jonathan, I did say that his administration recovered $970m from the said Abacha loot and sacked three of his ministers. I never said that those actions were taken quietly as they were announced and celebrated in the media by the Jonathan administration.

“Consequently, I questioned the motive of the members of the National Peace Committee in calling for a “soft landing” for corrupt people. Convinced that the call was a demonstration of class solidarity, I urged the Buhari administration not to be deterred in prosecuting the anti-corruption war.

“In fact, I did not hesitate in supporting President Buhari’s anti-corruption policy by citing Section 15 of the 1999 Constitution which has imposed a duty on the Nigerian state to abolish corrupt practices and abuse of power.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/falana-denies-praising-jonathans-anti-corruption-style/

OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Tuesday night stormed the headquarters of Arik Air in Ikeja Lagos following the arrest in London of a crew member of the airline for allegedly being in possession of cocaine.

The Arik crew member, identified by the anti-narcotics agency as Chika Egwu Udensi, was arrested on Monday night by operatives of the United Kingdom Border Force with 20 kilogrammes of cocaine in London.

The NDLEA agents were said to have searched Udensi’s latest Range Rover parked on the airline’s premises. Spokesman for the agency, Mitchel Ofoyeju, confirmed the visit by the NDLEA’s operatives.
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Udensi was arrested at the London Heathrow Airport shortly after an Arik Air flight W3101 that departed from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, touched down in the UK.

Udensi’s arrest came barely two years after two crew members of the Arik Air were similarly nabbed by the UK Border Force in London.

Officials of the NDLEA on Tuesday put the street value of the drug found with the suspect at £350,000 (N105m).

The Arik Air on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of its cabin crew member by the UK Border Force.

The airline, in a statement which read like the one issued after the 2013 incident, said it had commenced investigation into how the banned substance got into the suspect’s possession.

The statement by Arik’s spokesman, Mr. Adebanji Ola, read, “A member of Arik Air cabin crew was on Monday night arrested at the Heathrow Airport, London, by the UK Border Force in connection with alleged possession of item suspected to be a banned substance.

“The airline is presently carrying out its private investigation to determine how the cabin crew member came about the suspected banned substance.

“Arik Air will also be cooperating fully with the UK authorities and other appropriate agencies in their investigations.”

The statement added, “The airline again reaffirms its commitment to the fight against drug and illicit substances trafficking and will not tolerate the use of any of its aircraft or crew for the courier of banned items and substances.

http://www.punchng.com/news/ndlea-probes-arik-attendant-caught-with-n105m-cocaine/

Olaolufred:
IFE PEOPLE KNOWS THEIR KING IS MORE OF A BUSINESSMAN.
A CONTRACTOR AND PDP STALWART CUM SEASONED POLITHIEFCIAN.
THE GOVENORS MAKES THEIR CHOICES. ODUMAKIN SHOULD KEEP QUIET WITH HIS WIFE.
THEY ALL BELONG TO THE SCHOOL OF ABATINTIN.
NO ONE RECKON WITH THEIR BLABING ANY LONGER.

DO WELL WHEN ALIVE. SO THAT YOUR DEPARTURE CAN BE A BLESSED MEMORY.

Comrade Odumakin failed to mention Fayose, only APC governors.

Don't let us introduce North-South division into issues of national importance, please