Femi Adesina, a former Presidential spokesman, has disclosed how ex-President Muhammadu Buhari responded to President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Emilokan’ campaign speech.
Adesina said Buhari appreciated him after learning about Tinubu’s Emilokan speech.
All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Tinubu made a speech known as “Emilokan” during a meeting with party delegates in Ogun State in June 2022, which caused eyebrows to raise.
Tinubu had said Buhari wouldn’t have been President without his support, hence the 2023 presidential election was his turn.
However, Adesina said breaking the news of Tinubu’s speech to Buhari was a bit intriguing because the then-President was in Spain for an event at the time Tinubu made the assertion.
Concerned about varied interpretations reaching the President, Adesina and other aides decided to brief Buhari during their return flight to Nigeria.
Disclosing the moment Buhari was informed, Adesina said: “The visit concluded, and we were to return home on Friday, June 3, when the social media exploded with reports from Nigeria, of comments made at a public event in Abeokuta, Ogun State, by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC National Leader and an aspirant for President in the forthcoming party primary.
“Asiwaju Tinubu said many things, but what touched on President Buhari directly was that without him (Asiwaju), Buhari would never have been President and that it was now his own turn to rule. Emilokan, my turn, in Yoruba language.
“We, the principal aides of the President, were in a dilemma on how to brief the President on what had happened, as it would not be right for him to get to Nigeria and be reading different versions and interpretations of what happened, which may be right or wrong.
“Myself, Ambassador Kazaure, (SCOP), Chief Security Officer to the President, Idris Ahmed Kasim, Mohammed Sarki Abba, Dr. Suhayb Rafindadi, Col. Yusuf Dodo, the Aide-De-Camp, and Tunde Sabiu, Special Assistant, put heads together, and decided that I should brief the President when we were airborne to Abuja. The motive was so that he would not get varied and possibly distorted versions.
“Few minutes into the flight, I approached the President and said I needed to bring him up to speed on something major that had happened back home.”
Adesina continued, “Ever a willing listener, the President told me to go ahead. I did a summary of the Emilokan speech, and when I ended, the President ruminated for some moments and responded: ‘Asiwaju said all that? Thank you for coming to brief me.”
