Bode George Accused Bola Tinubu Of Selling Out Yoruba

Reacting to the recent letter of the former chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, to the party’s northern elders, George accused Akande and the former

governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, of selling out the south west region in the last general elections.

Akande had in his letter alleged that the region has been marginalised in the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari amid the recent crisis in the National Assembly, which he said was sponsored by northern elements.

According to George, the Yorubas would be grossly marginalised for the next four years because the Yoruba leaders within the ruling party rushed into an alliance with the North without proper planning. 

He berated Akande and Tinubu for not learning from history especially from Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who remained in the opposition all through his life because of his interest for the region over his own personal ambition. 

The former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), who spoke to The Punch, said the PDP was able to sustain democracy in Nigerian for 16 years because it understood the country’s diversity and constantly zoned key positions among all the regions in Nigeria. 

He accused the duo of fueling the crisis in their party when they commented that the APC does not recognise zoning.

He said, “They (Tinubu and Akande) were not cautious when they were forming their alliance. They did not understand the dynamics of national politics. They were just driven by greed. I am not saying that they should not have formed an alliance with the North but it should have been on equal basis.

“They have now been given a political circumcision. Awolowo wanted Yoruba to be equal partners with the North and not a second force. I said it that we have returned to the 1960 political era and Tinubu and Akande have been slapped. I predicted all these. 

“They were not thinking of the Yoruba but their selfish interests and I have no sympathy for them. Chief Akande said he did not believe in zoning and I knew that he did not know what he was talking about. 

“Zoning gives everybody, including the minorities, a sense of belonging but Akande threw zoning of out the window and that move has backfired.” 

George also said the position of vice-president, which a Yoruba man, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, holds, was not an influential position. 

“Go and read our constitution, there is no defined job for the vice-president. He only heads the Economic Council and is directed by the President. Let all Yoruba wake up now. You don’t enter into a coalition without deep thinking,” he said. 

George revealed in a recent interview that the PDP would gladly accept the House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and Senate President Bukola Saraki back into their fold.