By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Former governor of Lagos State and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has been facing marginalization from forces within the party, yesterday got enormous support from a large crowd of his supporters, who marched in solidarity for him.
The rally tagged “I Stand With Tinubu, was organised to express their strong disapproval of the efforts to rubbish him and thereby whittle down his alleged over-bearing influence in the affairs of the party and penchant for imposition of candidates.
Spokesman of the group, I Stand With Bola Tinubu, Tijani Oluwadamilare, in his remarks said that they would not allow Tinubu, who is a Yoruba leader, to be ridiculed by people he built up and gave opportunity to attain seeming political success.
“We all know what happened to past Yoruba leaders such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who were subjected to diverse forms of ridicule. We do not want this to happen again, especially not to the person of Tinubu who is a Yoruba leader now,” Tijani said.
Asiwaju has been sidelined in the scheme of things within the party, a development that put him at odds with the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. The cold war boiled over with the outcome of the party’s gubernatorial primary in Ondo State, leading to Tinubu making an open call for the removal of the party chairman.
Some people have also said that what is happening between Tinubu and the party hierarchy is not unrelated to 2019 election permutations.
Participants from across the 57 local government and council areas featured in the rally.