‘IBB Was Not Tinubu’s Tormentor, Osinbajo Got It Wrong’ – Onanuga

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has said the former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, got it wrong over claims that the former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, was President Tinubu‘s tormentor.

Naijaonpoint recalls that Osinbajo, during the public presentation of Babangida’s autobiography, “A Journey in Service”, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja last week, recalled how Tinubu, then a senator, resisted the dissolution of the senate by the military government, following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.

Osinbajo jokingly said Tinubu, who was tormented by the military, including Babangida, for attempting to reconstitute the dissolved senate, was at the event to honour one of his tormentors.

However, in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Onanuga faulted Osinbajo’s statement, stressing that Babangida inspired Tinubu to get into politics.

According to Onanuga, the torment began under General Sani Abacha when Tinubu and some colleagues attempted to reconvene the Senate in Lagos.

The presidential adviser also commended Babangida’s admission that MKO Abiola won the 1993 presidential election but said his admission came late.

He said, “I think the former Vice President got it wrong. I think Babangida was not really a tormentor of President Tinubu, don’t forget that President Tinubu said in his own extempore speech that he held Babangida as 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 like 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.”