AYO ESAN
FORMER Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bode George, has faulted the visit of some chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress to President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, claiming that the visit was devoid of “any patriotic progression.”
Those who had visited the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, include Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Segun Osoba, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, and Dr. Yomi Finnih.
In a statement on Saturday, George advised President Buhari not to fall for those who, he said, would eclipse the main issue bedeviling Lagos State in a needless, partisan engagement.
The Point had reported that the APC leaders, led by Chief Bisi Akande, had refused to disclose the details of their meeting with the President, which held behind closed doors, to State House Correspondents.
George in the statement titled, “The jamboree visit to the Villa: My Birthday Offering”, however described the visit as “needless, unnecessary and veiled in some poorly hidden agenda towards and “ulterior personalised desperation.”
George noted that the absence of the APC National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, from the parley made it easy for people to discern that “the visit was stripped of any patriotic progression, lacking in balanced national leadership, and voided of a spirit of sacrifice and developmental vision.”
To him, the meeting was designed to pave the way for softening of the ground for Tinubu, who he said would be at the center of discussions.
He said, “The visit of Chief Bisi Akande, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Dr. Yomi Finnih and Chief Segun Osoba to the seat of power in Abuja is needless, unnecessary, veiled in some poorly hidden agenda that is woven in apparently self-serving ulterior personalised desperation.
“It is easy to discern that the visit is stripped of any patriotic progression, lacking in balanced national leadership, voided of a spirit of sacrifice and developmental vision.
“The very absence of Bola Tinubu from the jamboree screams to high heavens that the meeting itself is a covert placatory softening of the ground for Tinubu himself. I am pretty certain that in his very absence, Tinubu occupies the centrality of the discussion.”
“President Muhammadu Buhari should not fall for those who would eclipse the main issue wracking Lagos State in a needless, solicitous self immersed scheming in partisan engagement,” the PDP chieftain stated.
George, who is also the Atọna Oodua of Yorubaland, alleged that the pivot of the Lagosian malady was the reckless, irresponsible misappropriation of the people’s commonwealth, adding, “This much I have documented in several public interventions.
“This, I may add, contributed to the heightened scale of the disgruntlement and the anger of the youths who made the Lekki Toll Gates the very symbol of their rejection of the politics of subjugation.’
“I will advise Baba Akande who governed Ọsun State with principled, incorruptible leadership to kindly help us drop off Bola Tinubu at Iragbiji as he makes his way back to Ila-Ọrangun, rather than engaging in fruitless pleading sessions for a man who is fixated on a warped pipe-dream about governing Nigeria. This is my humble birthday offering,” George further said.
