- Says “you cannot know where he is, even in APC”
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, 92, and a leader of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has described Segun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State and APC chieftain as a political bat, saying, “you cannot know where he is. Even in the All Progressives Congress…. Is he with Tinubu? Is he in the same camp with Adebayo and others?
Chief Adebanjo described Osoba so in a telephone interview with the Punch newspaper in reaction to scathing remarks Osoba made about him in an interview he granted to Sunday Vanguard newspaper yesterday, October 4, 2020.
Chief Adebanjo also accused Osoba and other APC members of seeing the 2023 presidential election as more important to them than discourses on restructuring of Nigeria. He promised he will not dignify Osoba’s statement with a response, “because he (Osoba) only wanted to create an impression that he’s having a controversy with me…I will address all the issues he raised during the interview at the appropriate time. How can they be talking of restructuring when they are only talking about 2023?” Chief Adebanjo asked.
Osoba, who promised to, henceforth, return fire-for-fire any time Chief Adebanjo speaks, was asked by the interviewer whether he has been having any personal differences with Chief Adebanjo, and Osoba emphatically answered, “very much so. Over time, he has never wished me well…. He is always against me.”
Osoba continued: “He (Chief Ayo Adebanjo) is always acting like the interpreter of Awolowo’s philosophy. I once challenged him (by asking,) when did he become Awolowo’s Peter and when did Awolowo give him the key to his philosophy?
“I have always maintained that my relationship with Awolowo,” Osoba said, “was independent of any of them. I met Awolowo when he came out of prison in 1966. And I covered him even when he was Minister of Finance. I was among the few people Awolowo could see without appointment. I was free with Awolowo throughout his lifetime. I used to dine with Awolowo every other week and he was never uncomfortable with it,” Osoba had told Vanguard.
It appears the grouse Chief Adebanjo has with Osoba was couched in one of the comments the Vanguard interviewer made to Osoba: “He (Chief Adebanjo) maintained that before 2015, Asiwaju Tinubu and you were at the forefront of the agitation for restructuring but, when APC came to power, you slowed down on it and that, often times, when you are fighting for your interest, you present it as if it is Yoruba interest.”
In response to the interviewer’s remark, Osoba said, “He (Chief Adebanjo) can use the word ‘restructuring,’ we can use other words like ‘true federalism.’ It is all one and the same or we can use the word ‘devolution’ which is happening in the UK now. Power is being devolved from Westminster to Wales and Northern Ireland. We are in government; we don’t have to go about shouting in public.”
Also, in the Vanguard interview, Osoba accused Chief Adebanjo of dictatorship: “In his dictatorial way, he says he has now zoned the presidency to the Igbo. Who is he to zone the Yoruba race out of the 2023 presidential race?… Where did we meet as Yoruba? Awolowo will not behave like that.”
