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AKANDE’S FRIENDLY FIRE

• How ex-APC chairman’s book lays Tinubu’s 2023 presidential ambition on the guillotine

Controversies over claims made by Bisi Akande in his autobiography, ‘My Participations’ may not advance the 2023 ambition of his political ally, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as many believed the writing of the book was intended, writes Akani Alaka.

With a political career that began in 1977 as a member of the Constituent Assembly and subsequently served as secretary to the Oyo State Government, deputy governor, governor and pioneer chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC at various times, Chief Bisi Akande has certainly packed a lot of experience in his over 80-years sojourn on earth that will be worth reading about.

Even if all of his other political milestones seemed far off, the feat he recorded when he steered the merger of a collection of political parties into a coalition that ended the 16-year dominance of Nigeria’s political space by the Peoples Democratic Party as the chairman of APC remains an object of intriguing discussion and admiration.

This unarguably informed the excitement when news broke of the planned launch of his 559-page autobiography entitled, ‘My Participations’.

A further indication of the importance of the book and the author to the APC family was the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari decided to personally attend the launch, making one of the few trips he has made to any part of Nigeria in his over six years’ presidency to Lagos.

Also prominent at the well-attended book launch held at the prestigious Eko Hotel was the National Leader of APC and Akande’s longtime political collaborator and ally, former governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking at the event, the President described Akande as a man of integrity who has played outstanding roles and impacted the country in public service.

But it was Tinubu who warned of what to expect with the release of the book: “Chief Akande writes frankly. He does not sugarcoat or obscure. He says what he sees. Some people wished this book never to see the light of day because they received the words of his sharp pen for their negative roles in key events. Given his kind nature, however, many others won his admiration. As author Amit Kalantri quipped, “An honest man speaks the truth; don’t expect him to speak sweet,”

Between Tinubu And Akande

Tinubu had described his relationship with  Akande as “longstanding and broad”, at the book launch.

He said: “We have been fellow travellers in the struggle for democracy and progressive governance. We also shared similar backgrounds in Accounting and Finance. We both honed our accounting skills in oil companies, Baba in British Petroleum, me in Mobil, before our forays into politics,” Tinubu said.

That relationship traversed Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 and the ascension of APC to power in 2015.

Akande was the chairman of Action Congress, which later transformed into Action Congress of Nigeria, a party championed by Tinubu, which later merged with the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party and a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA to form the APC ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Akande had in the book narrated how Tinubu initiated the alliance between the ACN which was dominant in the South-West and the CPC, ANPP popular then in North-west as a platform to kick out PDP from power in 2015 with him as the pioneer chairman of the then-new APC.

“He suggested and encouraged me that we both visit Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna. It was my first time meeting Buhari in his home and I was attracted to his personal values and austere life. We joined him at lunch, chatted heartily and agreed to work together again. Things began to happen quickly thereafter.

The former Lagos governor had on his part recounted how Akande, as the interim chairman of APC, worked tirelessly to sell the new party to Nigerians, with his efforts culminating in the termination of PDP’s 16 years in power during the 2015 presidential election. 

“Without Baba Akande’s sage guidance, that merger might never have come to pass. We owe him deep gratitude for his singular devotion to consummating the complicated merger in such a positive manner that then Candidate General Muhammadu Buhari was able to demonstrate his popularity by achieving a monumental victory in the 2015 election,” Tinubu said.

Written To Promote Tinubu’s 2023 Ambition

True to Tinubu’s assertion, with the controversies the book has been generating, many would wish it was not published.

Indeed, one of those mentioned in the book, Chief Bode George, a former governor of Ondo State and a chieftain of PDP last Thursday appealed to Akande to withdraw the book from circulation.

George, just like others who have faulted Akande’s accounts of political events in the autobiography argued that contrary to the assertion of Tinubu, Akande did not ‘speak the truth’ in the book.

The book itself was launched as the presidential ambition of former Lagos governor was gathering momentum.

Tinubu had in the past few weeks met with individuals and groups across the country as part of the consultations before his eventual declaration for the 2023 presidential race.

He confirmed last week that he would make his intention on the 2023 presidency known in early 2022.

Thus, many have argued that his account of the formation of the APC in the book was twitched in favour of the presidential ambition of his younger political associate. For one, one of the planks some supporters of Tinubu presidential ambition have been anchoring the presidential ambition of the former governor on was alleged promise of Buhari to hand over to him at the end of his tenure during the formation of APC.

Supporters of the presidential ambition of Tinubu had also argued that Buhari failed to fulfil his promise to make Tinubu his running mate in the 2015 presidential election.

In “My Participations”, Akande expatiated on this with an elaborate narration of how Buhari dropped Tinubu under pressure from some northern governors who insisted that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would be hard to sell to Nigerians.

He stated that Buhari had called him in 2014 and asked him to persuade Tinubu to run with him.

“Governor Masari was the one who came to call me. When I followed him into Buhari’s private lobby, Bola Tinubu was already seated there:

“So, when Buhari tabled the matter, I cautioned them that this must not get out beyond the four of us. ‘How could he be talking of a running mate when he had not secured the ticket?” Akande said. “Bola later told me that Buhari’s emissaries had been coming to him, but he tried to dodge the gesture and not to show interest. We agreed that we would reopen the matter when Buhari had secured the ticket,” he added.

He added that he was surprised when Buhari became the party’s candidate, things changed as he later got to know that some people constituted themselves into a group, called the Northern Interest Group, and they prevailed on Buhari not to allow a Muslim-Muslim ticket. 

Buhari later phoned Tinubu to give him three names from which he would pick a running mate and the former Lagos governor nominated his one-time Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Yemi Osinbajo.  “I spoke to Tinubu on phone. ‘Who was that person?’ l asked. ‘It was Yemi Osinbajo,’ Tinubu declared. I asked Aregbesola to find out where Osinbajo was. He called him on the phone. ‘Yemi, where are you? ‘Don’t you know your case is coming up tomorrow?’ ‘l am in Abuja to argue your case.’ Osinbajo answered at the other end. ‘Which hotel are you staying?” Osinbajo told him. “I got a blank sheet of paper and wrote Yemi Osinbajo on it. I instructed Amosun and Aregbesola to deliver that note to Buhari immediately. It was almost midnight. Then the two of them left,” said Akande in the book. 

This narration of how Tinubu made Osinbajo vice president has been disputed. Some groups popping up Osinbajo to contest in 2023 last week claimed the narration was intended to dissuade the Vice President from contesting with Tinubu who was portrayed as his benefactor in the book. 

Some associates of the President had also been quoted as saying what Buhari promised Tinubu in 2014 was a partnership between the South-west and North-west and not the vice president or running mate.

They also claimed that Buhari had sent a delegation of Farouk Aliyu, Hadi Sirika and Sarki Abba, to meet Tinubu and explained to him that the Muslim-Muslim ticket would not work. 

They, therefore, concluded that Akande’s claims in his book were deliberately slanted to earn the support of Buhari for Tinubu’s presidential ambition.

Building Up Enmity For Tinubu

But even if Akande’s book was to earn support for Tinubu presidential ambition as has been alleged, events last week indicated that it is achieving the opposite, especially in the South-west.

Akande’s disputed narration of the roles played by Afenifere chieftains like Olaniwun Ajayi, Ayo Adebanjo, Ganiyu Dawodu in the loss of the then Alliance for Democracy, AD presidential by his former boss, Bola Ige to Chief Olu Falae had opened old wounds that will continue to attract reactions for some time to come. Aside, Akande had also in the book accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Olabode George, the late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, Iyiola Omisore and other South-west PDP leaders of being complicit in the assassination of Bola Ige.

He also accused Adebanjo, the late Pa Olaniwun Ajayi and Chief Olu Falae of refusing to suggest younger Yoruba sons to represent the South-West at the 2014 National Conference.

He claimed the three chose to attend themselves because of the money offered to delegates by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration which convened the conference.

“They could not find any younger Yoruba to send to the conference to represent our interest. They believed, even in their old age, that they were the only people who could have gone there. Sir Ajayi, who was close to 90 at the time of the conference, has since joined his ancestors. Chief Adebanjo celebrated his 90th birthday in 2018. Chief Falae is in his 80s. Note that Jonathan paid the conference delegates generous allowances”,  said Akande.

Akande had also alleged in the book that there is nothing genuine about former President Obasanjo whom he accused of rigging him and other governors of the then AD, except Tinubu out of power in 2003.

“I have never seen anything genuine about him despite his self-glorification. …In his detestations for Awolowo, he is ruled by a virulent inferiority complex, believing that he needed to do everything to supplant the greatness of Awolowo or undermine his legacies. That was also why he continued in this line during his two-term disastrous presidency”, said Akande.

“For the reason that I was not dancing to his tune, Obasanjo did everything to depress and discredit my government and undermine us in Osun State. Indeed, he wanted my government to collapse and once I had problem with Omisore, he adopted him as a willing tool and railroaded him into the Senate despite his detention for the assassination of Bola Ige”, he wrote.

He also alleged that he fell out with Omisore after he refused to sign a $1.5 million contract involving a company owned by his deputy.

“Iyiola Omisore crept into my life like a silent malignant cancer. He came in full force. In a few months, I thought I knew him. I regret I did not know him in his true colours,” Akande wrote.

Arguably, the most controversial claim in the book was the claim that Adebanjo compelled Tinubu to build a house for him in Lekki, Lagos.

You Lied

Reacting to the allegation last Thursday, Adebanjo described Akande as a neophyte and a beneficiary of a struggle he never took part in.

“I, therefore, deny categorically (sic) that my house at Lekki was built with my resources through the sale of three developed properties, loan from GTBank and the sale of undeveloped landed property given me by my late leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory,” he argued. 

Adebanjo who gave details of property he sold to build his Lekki house urged both Akande and Tinubu to tell Nigerians how they became stupendously rich.

“I hereby authorise the EFCC to verify the above facts. It is alleged that Chief Bisi Akande’s building at Ila-Orangun, which I understand is more than double the expanse of my house in Lekki and some other properties he has in Lagos and abroad were financed by Bola Tinubu.

“His house in Ibadan was also alleged to have been built by the contractor that built the secretariat in Osogbo when he was the governor of Osun State.

“I hereby challenge Chief Bisi Akande to clear the air by disclosing the source of financing these properties as I have done above.

“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the great philanthropist, should also disclose the source of his wealth with which he bankrolled the elections of APC in the South-west and that of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and his various properties in Lagos.

He should also authorise the EFCC to verify such details as I have done above,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, disputed the claim by Akande that he was prudent and honest as governor. Akande had said in the book that Oyinlola wrongly accused him of corruption in the construction of the Governor’s Office (Bola Ige House).

But Oyinlola said, “I did not level any false charges against him. I came into office in May 2003 and discovered that the Governor’s Office complex which Akande commissioned for use after he lost the election was really not completed. He noted that Akande awarded the construction of a Government House in his last days in office, “after he lost the election, and in advance, paid the contractors the entire contract sum of N800 million.”

He added that his forthcoming autobiography had already taken care of all the issues raised in Akande’s book about him. He, however, said he decided to make preliminary replies for the benefit of Nigerians who may be interested in hearing his immediate side of the story.

Putting Tinubu’s Ambition On Guillotine

George and Adebanjo had also accused Akande of lying in the book in his bid to ensure the emergence of Tinubu as Nigeria’s next president.

“At his age, Akande should not set his house on fire because of Tinubu’s ambition. I felt very bad as a Yoruba man and as a Nigerian.

“He has maligned Yoruba elders and highly respectable people in the country. He was busy giving kudos to Bola Tinubu. Baba Akande is from Osun State and Tinubu is the only man that he could single out to praise”, said George.

On his part, Adebanjo said, “They have sold out the Yoruba race to Muhammadu Buhari all because they want Tinubu to be president.

“That is not my business. But telling lies is the one I don’t know, and I don’t know how a man like Akande who claims that we all come from the root of Obafemi Awolowo can be taking pride in his participation in the government of one Buhari who they know is a disaster when all those who supported him initially are now regretting that they supported him..”

Analysts contended last week that Akande’s book may have done more damage to the presidential ambition of Tinubu than promote it.

They pointed out that the recent caution by former President Obasanjo to the Ooni of Ife to stop promoting the ambition of Tinubu may be a pointer in this regard. “And knowing Obasanjo, he is not likely to stop. He has been speaking about the need to focus on Buhari’s likely successor in recent times. Though Obasanjo cannot even be counted among fans of Tinubu, Akande’s book will make things difficult for him”, he said.

The Nigerian Xpress previously reported that Leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, on Thursday, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the sources of the wealth of the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, and the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Adebanjo also castigated Akande for saying he (Adebanjo) pestered Tinubu to build him the house he now lives, in Lekki.

The nonagenarian leader of Afenifere, who explained how he generated the funds with which he built his Lekki residence, spoke during a press conference in Lagos in response to the allegation made against him by Akande in his 559-page autobiography, titled ‘My Participations’, launched in Lagos last week. Tinubu; President Muhammadu Buhari; Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; amongst others, attended the book launch.

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