From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja and Rukayat Maina
Presidential chief spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, has faulted former vice president Yemi Osinbajo over comments that former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, tormented President Bola Tinubu.
During the public presentation of ‘A Journey In Service’, an autobiography by former military president Ibrahim Babangida, in Abuja last week, Osinbajo jokingly remarked that Tinubu was ironically at the event to celebrate with his former tormentors.
“And then, of course, there’s a gentleman here who was an elected senator in 1992 because of Babangida’s transition programme.
“When Babangida annulled the 1993 election and General Abacha took over, dissolved the senate, that senator tried to reconstitute the senate in resistance to the dissolution.
“He was detained, charged to court, and later escaped into exile. Today, he is here, celebrating with his former tormentors — but as the president, commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria… President Bola Tinubu.”
While appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, yesterday, Onanuga said Tinubu’s travails during the struggle for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993, presidential election annulled by IBB began during the regime of Sani Abacha, the late military head of state who succeeded Babangida after sacking the Chief Ernest Shonekan interim government contraction.
“I think the former vice president got it wrong. I think Babangida was not really a tormentor of President Tinubu,” Onanuga said on a Channels Television programme, yesterday.
“Don’t forget that President Tinubu said in his own extempore speech that he owed Babangida something, that he was the person that inspired him to get into politics.
“When Babangida came in, he was talking about new breed politicians and so on, and Tinubu… many of them were already technocrats or in private business and so on.
“All of them came out to participate in politics, that was what brought him in. So, he came there to pay homage, and that he inspired him.”
Onanuga added that Tinubu was at the event to show appreciation to Babangida.
“He was elected as senator under Babangida in 1992 or so and he was there till Babangida left office in August in 1993.
“The torment began under General Sani Abacha when Tinubu tried to reconvene the senate, along with some of his colleagues in Lagos, at the old parliament building, and he was arrested.
“As a NADECO activist, NADECO came in after Babangida had left.
“So I would not say Babangida was Tinubu’s tormentor-in-chief. Tinubu and Babangida had some relationship when Babangida was in office. So it was not true. He was not his tormentor.”
Meanwhile, Onanuga has admonished the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, to put his grudges aside and quit complaining over not being named a minister in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.
El-Rufai, who was among President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominees, was dropped after the Senate declined his confirmation over security concerns.
El-Rufai had claimed in an interview with AriseTV that President Tinubu himself rejected his nomination, contrary to the narrative that the Senate was responsible.
But Onanuga expressed surprise that the former governor was still nursing grievances several months after Tinubu’s cabinet was constituted and urged him to move on from the past.
“As a person, I think I will pity the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. He feels hurt that he was not made a minister, but I think it’s a long time; the ministers came in August 2023. I think it’s time for him to move on.”
Onanuga remarked that while it was fair for el-Rufai to be dissatisfied, it was wrong for him to go on a public campaign against the president.
“It’s natural for him to feel hurt, it’s natural for him to feel bad that he’s been excluded. And as the President acknowledged in a recent birthday tribute to him, Nasiru actually helped a lot in installing President Tinubu. But if he’s not there, it doesn’t mean that he must bring down the roof.”
Addressing concerns about the relationship between President Tinubu and El-Rufai, Onanuga insisted that Tinubu held no personal grudge against the former governor.
“The President has nothing personally against Nasiru, and so if Nasir feels naturally hurt that he has been excluded, and that’s why he’s going about everywhere campaigning against the President, it shows a man who resents being left out of the moving train and who will not let go.”
Onanuga stressed that El-Rufai had been in public service since 1999 and should embrace a new phase of his life. “My advice for him as a brother, as a former governor, is to appeal to him that he should forget it if he’s not made a minister,” he said.
While El-Rufai has also criticised the administration’s policies and governance approach, Onanuga dismissed his views as a personal opinion that does not align with reality.
“This government inherited a lot of problems, and if you look at the figures and other things that we are witnessing, things are getting better. We are certainly not where we were in 2023,” he asserted.
He pointed to improvements in economic indicators as proof of the administration’s progress. “This administration has done a lot to re-engineer the economy, and we are seeing positive figures. We’re seeing inflation coming down, our foreign reserves growing, and so many positive things happening,” Onanuga concluded.
Speaking during an interview on Arise TV’s Prime Time, on Monday night, El-Rufai said claims that the Senate rejected his nomination over security concerns should not be discountenanced.
He disclosed that President Tinubu personally requested his support and assured him of a ministerial nomination, which came with certain conditions. However, the president later withdrew the offer.
“Since I left office and the president begged me publicly to support him, I said I would and I don’t want anything. I am a self-made man. I don’t need anything.
“Through two months of negotiations, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister and there were certain conditions I attached to that, along the line, either the president changed his mind.
“Please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me, they had nothing to do with it, the president didn’t want me in his cabinet,” he added.
On the alleged security concerns cited for his rejection, El-Rufai challenged the claim, insisting there was no report against him.
“What was the security issue the National Assembly had against me? Where is the report?
There were far less qualified, less experienced that scaled through because the president made a call. He is a human being; he’s entitled to change his mind.”
He also lambasted the party’s leadership, stating that its organs have been inactive since Tinubu assumed office.
“I’m a founding member of the APC, but I have concerns about how the party is being run…
“How many people sacrificed a lot to ensure that it was an internally democratic party with progressive ideals, two years after the election of President Tinubu, none of the party organs is functioning. The progressive ideals are not being pursued with any vigour,” he declared.