Pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has narrated how he drafted Asiwaju Bola Tinubu into the 2023 presidential race against his initial reluctance.
Akande, a one-time governor Osun State, said Tinubu complained about his leg challenge as he was suffering from arthritis prior to joining the presidential race but that he persuaded him on the need to run as the best candidate the Yoruba can push forward for the election.
The elder statesman made the disclosures as a guest on ‘State of the Nation’, a podcast hosted by renowned broadcast journalist Edmund Obilo.
Akande recalled that someone called him to report that Tinubu was quarrelling with anyone who discussed the presidency idea with him (Tinubu) at the time.
The former governor declared that he instigated and persuaded the president to join the 2023 presidential race for a Yoruba to occupy the highest office in the land.
“I instigated him. I encouraged him. I worked for it. Somebody called me ‘come ooo, there’s trouble.’ And I was in Lagos, they said anybody that talks to him about presidency, he was quarreling with them. That anybody that mentioned presidency, he was quarreling with them.
“And then I met him, and he said ‘Baba, do you have money?’ If I had the kind of money that people need to be President, I would rank with Dangote. He said that to me. Shortly before COVID and EndSARS,” he stated.
Akande stressed that he was not personally concerned about Tinubu but about securing the presidency for the Yoruba race.
“I said ‘look, we don’t want you to be President because of you. You’re unimportant in this matter. But that in your Yoruba tradition, when you want to worship the deity, you take the fattest animal or the biggest yam to worship the deity.
“‘Yoruba wants to be President. And you’re the one we have now. It’s to sacrifice you, so that we can have President. Not for you to be anything.’
“He didn’t know what to say. He was just looking at me as if I was sick or something. He was just sober.”
Aside from the consideration about funding, Akande further explained that Tinubu also raised the issue of his health at that time.
“Baba, you now said I should run, what about my leg,’ then he was having a bad leg. You know, Arthritis. Then I said ‘go and do it, there’s still time. Go and do it, you’d heal in six months and you start walking again. And you can run.’ And he went to fix it.”