Former President Olusegun
Obasanjo has said the alliance of his former deputy, Vice President, Atiku
Abubakar, with the late Dr Alex Ekwueme during the 2003 presidential primary
election of the Peoples Democratic Party collapsed after Ekwueme was defeated
at the poll.
Obasanjo said this in Ibadan on
Thursday at the public presentation of ‘Amazing Grace’, a biography of former
Oyo State Governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala.
Obasanjo, who was the chairman of
the occasion at the book launch, gave the explanation to correct an aspect of
the book where the author claimed that Atiku backed down before the primary
poll.
Obasanjo said, “Again, Atiku did
not back down as you claimed until Alex Ekwueme was defeated at the primary of PDP
in 2003 as Atiku’s agreement with Ekwueme was to be Ekwueme’s running mate and
Ekwueme, as President, spending three years and resigning for Atiku to complete
the fourth year and then for Atiku to contest election in his own right in
2007.
“It was after the result of the primary that Atiku backed down, if you put it that way, it was when there was no other choice.”
Obasanjo also faulted the roles
played by Alao-Akala in the failure of the South-West to produce the Speaker of
the House of Representatives which Aminu Tambuwal eventually won.
He said Alao-Akala first proposed
Ajibola Muraina and he, Obasanjo, and others accepted him but said Alao-Akala
later began to lobby for Mulikat Akande, who was eventually defeated by
Tambuwal.
Obasanjo said, “Bayo, I will not say much on the issue of Muraina and Mulikat for Speaker of House of Representatives as reported on page 391 as you put it, ‘I sinned against this man once and that has marred our fantastic relationship’.
“The story as you put it down is
not correct. You proposed Muraina for the job and we all accepted him for
South-West and started to work. As a result, the then National Vice-Chairman of
PDP, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo, wrote to the then Acting Chairman of PDP, Alhaji
Haliru Mohammed Bello, on 12 May 2011 to put forward Muraina.
“I got a copy of that letter as
Chair of BOT of PDP. It was unbelievable for me to hear that you later
surreptitiously started prompting Mulikat, a lady from Ogbomoso, and you had
started working behind the scene for her without coming back to tell me what
had changed and why, nor go back to the South-West caucus. That, to me, is
duplicity and I don’t play such a game.
“Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo told me
later the game that was played and in the end, you and the South-West were the
losers. But you have apologised and I have forgiven and, of course, I am here.
That too has also passed into history.”
Alao-Akala described himself as a
product of God’s grace, saying God used some persons to lift him up.
He said God used former Inspector
General of Police, late Sunday Adewusi, late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, and Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo among others to lift him up at different times in his life.
The public presentation of the
book was attended by dignitaries including Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode
Fayemi; Oyo State Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan, who represented Governor Seyi
Makinde; the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba
Saliu Adetunji, the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oladunni Oyewumi; the Minister for Youth
and Sports Development; Mr Sunday Dare; Dr Saka Balogun, former Military
Governor of Oyo State, Brigadier General Oladayo Popoola (retd), Senator Brimo
Yusuf and others.
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