The Founding Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, has revealed that he played a key role in persuading Bola Tinubu to run for the presidency.
Speaking in an interview on State Affairs with Edmund Obilo, published Wednesday on YouTube, Akande shared that Tinubu was initially reluctant to contest, expressing concerns over financial constraints and self-doubt.
“When I met him, he said, Baba, do you have money? If I had the kind of money that people have to be president, I would rank with Dangote,’” Akande recounted that Tinubu said he had no money to be president.
According to Akande, Tinubu was hesitant to take advice about running for president and frequently clashed with those who proposed the idea.
“People called me and said, ‘Come, there is trouble. Anybody that talks to him about the presidency, he was quarrelling with them.’ So, I went to Lagos and met him,” he said.
Akande said he approached Tinubu with a compelling argument based on Yoruba tradition.
“I told him, ‘We don’t want you to be president because of you. You are unimportant in this matter. But in Yoruba tradition, when you want to worship the deity, you take the fattest animal or the biggest yam to worship. Yoruba wants to be president, and you are the one we have now. It is to sacrifice you so that we can have a president, not for you to be anything,’” he said.
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This unconventional appeal appeared to leave Tinubu momentarily speechless he said.
“He was looking at me as if I was sick or something,” Akande said, adding that Tinubu later asked him, “Baba, you now say I should run. What about this, my leg?” referring to his health challenges. Akande assured him, “Go and do it. There is still time. You will heal in six months.”
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