President Muhammadu Buhari’s special adviser on political matters, Babafemi Ojudu, has said he would rather go back to the farm than support the presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos State governor.
Ojodu argued that Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president, is a better candidate than Tinubu, noting that he will not work with someone he does not believe in.
Ojudu who spoke in an interview with Chude Jideonwo, a media entrepreneur, on Saturday, said he would never fall in line to back Tinubu if his principal, Buhari, supports the former governor.
“Never. Take that from me, write it down today, I will go back to the farm. If I don’t believe in you I will not work for or with you,” he said.
“We are still waiting for Osinbajo to come and tell us if he is running. I personally will want him to do so, but he has not come out, so we will wait, and there is still time.
“If I support Osinbajo, he deserves to be supported… I see the way he works, day and night, committed, not asking for things for himself, committed to the people, committed to Nigeria and well educated.
“He can stand his anywhere in the world, comfortable with the young and the old, conformable with new technology and always coming out with solutions to problems. I mean, it doesn’t cost me anything to align with such a person.
“What am I looking for in life? I’m looking for a better society, a society where everybody can realise themselves. I’m looking for a society where some people will not pile all of a country’s resources into their accounts.
“So if I see somebody who has all of those attributes, I have the right to support that kind of person, so if Osinbajo declares tomorrow that he is running, I will have no apology I will support him, and I will work for him.”
Ojudu said governance is not a family or chieftaincy title, adding that Osinbajo is best suited to handle the challenges facing the country.
“We’re talking about Nigeria for God’s sake, it’s not a family title, we are not choosing a chief or a king of a community, we are choosing the president of Nigeria,” he said.
“A Nigeria that has the challenges of insecurity, that has issues around unemployment, the economy needs a hard push and several other things.
“While we are not saying you are not a good man, we are saying can we try somebody else for God’s sake, who may have better capacity at solving some of these problems.
“When we talk about betrayal, we are patronising. We are looking for the person who can do the job, while we are not saying he is not capable, we are saying that if put on a scale, one person is better than the other.”