Akintoye’s attack on Tinubu malicious – campaign team

The presidential campaign team of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has reacted to a statement issued by Yoruba separatist Professor Banji Akintoye.

Akintoye, a professor of history, had accused Tinubu of pursuing a personal agenda, saying he should instead support agitation for Nigeria’s dismemberment and the creation of a separate Yoruba nation.

In his statement issued on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, the Director, Media and Publicity, Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, disagreed with Akintoye’s description of Tinubu’s ambition.

Onanuga, said, “Our attention has been drawn to an unfortunate, misdirected, misplaced and divisive statement credited to Prof Banji Akintoye, in which his group threatened to pull the South West out of Nigeria.

“To be candid, there are several agitation groups in the South West and in other parts of Nigeria who wrongly think the best way to demand justice and fairness is through the break-up of our country.

“And since there has been no referendum held in Yorubaland about whether to stay in Nigeria or not and no such referendum has been held in any part of Nigeria, it is then appropriate to assume that this separatist idea is Akintoye and his group’s sole idea.

“We join other bonafide and critical stakeholders in Yorubaland to advise Prof Akintoye not to plunge our people into a needless and precipitate crisis or create another Rwanda.”

“We find it quite preposterous the Professor’s sweeping outlandish accusation that Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu is only pursuing his PERSONA interest in running for the presidency of Nigeria.

“Such a statement is malicious and unwarranted. It is pertinent to state that Asiwaju Tinubu is contesting for Nigeria’s presidency because of his readiness to render unflinching service to Nigerians and because of his abiding faith in a strong, united and prosperous Nigeria where every man and woman, regardless of their ethnicity and religious beliefs, can be proud and prosperous.

“Most of the issues around the structure of our federalism raised in Prof Akintoye’s poorly thought-out statement have been sufficiently addressed in Asiwaju’s Action Plan with his promise to address some of the problems plaguing our federalism and the will to make the states more viable as federating units by devolving more powers to them.”