INTERVIEW: As Lagosian,  I Was Wrong To Criticize Tinubu

Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, a  Lagos prince, is a former political adviser to the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George. He was a chieftain of the PDP in Lagos State for 17 years before he resigned from the party in September last year.

He is now one of the foremost supporters of the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He is the Director General of The Patriots Roundtable, one of the independent national support groups for Tinubu.

Shodipe-Dosunmu, a veteran journalist, holds the traditional title of Apesin Ola of Okolaba Ekun. He is also the Oloriekun of Olowogbowo in Lagos.

In this interview with THE WHISTLER, he reacts to claims made by a former chieftain of the APC, Naja’atu Muhammad, about Tinubu and other issues.

You Used To Be A Chieftain Of The Peoples Democratic Party In Lagos And Strong Critic Of Bola Tinubu Up Till Few Months Ago. But Now You’re With Him. Did He Bribe You To Follow Him?

Tinubu cannot bribe me, he knows the kind of person I am, and he knows my worth. He asked me to come back and I have not collected anything, quote me anywhere, I have not collected a dime from anybody, not even Tinubu, because I understand politics very well. Yes, I criticized him but politics is very dynamic, sometimes you see thing’s differently, and I acknowledge that I was wrong in the role I played in PDP; I have seen the light and I am now with my people.  I am a true Lagosian who believes in the uplifting, developing, and growth of my state.

As I said I stand with Tinubu in his journey to the presidency and I have no regrets.

Now You’re One Of The Foremost Supporters Of Tinubu, What Do You Have To Say About Allegations That He Has Dementia?

 The only way I can comment on that or basically dismiss that, is that it’s full of crass imbecility, it’s fraudulent, malicious, malignant, and born of hatred. It is not true.

How Are You Sure? Why Are You Dismissing It As Untrue?

It’s untrue because I’ve sat with this man one on one for about two hours in Marina, State House and I am still super impressed with his cognitive ability. What I mean by that is his ability to recognize and recall incidents from 20 years ago with instinctive insight. He talks like a philosopher. The man is street smart, he’s a master of immediate repartee. You say something and he gives you an immediate answer, responsive to the question you ask, he may be dismissive to acknowledge that he knows what you’re talking about. When I met him he said ” You this man, you ran away. Why? This is your home. What are you doing with those characters? With those people?”  I said well, it’s the situation sir. Then he answered “You just walked away, you didn’t call me. I said okay sir. Then he said well “this is what I have for you.”

The brilliance of the man is his ability to really look at somebody, appreciate the person’s capability and capacity, and define the role the person can play in his affairs, this time in his presidential campaign. And that’s the person I saw that day. He can quickly recollect incidents, immediately. He recollected the first time we met again in Marina when he was governor, it was a Sunday and he told me “You see those we contested together.” I said they should not be in our cabinet so that there won’t be a complex, then he said “but I have something for you”, and he was recalling all those things exactly the way he said it, more than 20 years ago. He knew exactly what he said and he repeated it. He said “You know what I told you, I want you to go to Lagos Horizon, do you know what you told me”, I said sir, then he said “Don’t tell me, this is what you said ..” and he told me in Yoruba exactly what I said.  He asked me if I remembered what he said, and I told him I remember, and I told him he said “You go and work it up”.

Is that a man with dementia? Who is Naajatu Mohammed to classify someone as a person with dementia? Is she a medical doctor? Or a psychologist or a psychiatrist?

But Some Nigerians Have Observed That During Campaign Rallies, He Is Not As Coherent As Expected And Has Made Several Gaffes. What Do You Have To Say?

 I don’t know about coherence or non-coherence but there is nobody, no presidential aspirant or candidate that has gone through this grueling campaign that this man has gone through. From Kebbi to the swamps of Delta, from the shores of Atlantic in Lagos to the savannah of Bauchi, this man has traversed everywhere. A younger man, even me, would stumble. Did you not see Atiku in Delta, as he climbed down? But because the media is biased, the media is compromised. It’s not a determined media that wants the best for this country. They are not playing the true role of the fourth estate. The true role of the fourth estate is to be neutral, to analyse without bias and without bringing in your own personal innuendos. I don’t agree with Arise and some other media houses I won’t mention, but Arise and ThisDay are the most visible and vicious.

You Wrote Recently That Some Of The People Opposing Tinubu Are Trying To Weaponize The Naira. What Exactly Did You Mean?

Well, you know the way I write, I don’t mention names. And as an author, I do not interpret my own work, they are subject to a thousand interpretations. I’ve said what I want to say, I’m not going to say more than that but the fact is there are some columnists, even within the government who are trying to sabotage Buhari himself, that’s all I will say.

When you are now bringing in a policy of naira exchange barely three months before election, and suddenly the eruption of fuel scarcity almost 25 days before the general election, it’s not good for the incumbent President. He wouldn’t want that for himself, so you can see that there are others crawling beneath power, not even on the corridors of power again, they are now crawling beneath power to sabotage the man himself, that is what is going on, and that is basically what I wrote upon.

 Do You See Your Candidate Winning This Election?

No doubt about it, he is a man of all seasons. Tinubu is a special person, sometimes when you talk about people like Tinubu, you have no other way but to go spiritual. Someone who left power 23 years ago, and is still relevant, why is he relevant? If he had dementia, he would not be relevant. It’s because he’s a planner, a strategist. He knows where to put the right person at the right time, how to cultivate the right person at the right time. He is not flawless, only God Almighty is flawless, but he has a talent of identifying good people, meritorious characters that aid and strengthen his own cause. That is why he’s still relevant, and that is why little men, those who serve the moment, are still afraid of him. He is a national networker and a national unifier.

As governor, he brought Igbo and Hausa people into his cabinet, the first time anybody would do it. That’s revolutionary. Let me tell you an incident from when I was in government in 2000, this man Tinubu knows how to negotiate and counsel. He sent me on an errand to go to the party leader, it was Femi Adesina, who is now the Special Adviser on Media to the president, that drove me to the house of this party leader in Lagos state, Chief Taiwo.

Mr. Adesina drove me in his car, he came to Lagos and drove me in his car because he is a friend. Of course, he didn’t know what I was going to discuss with the man.

What did Asiwaju tell me? He said I know he’s your father, he’s your friend, you both belong to AUF, Afenifere Unity forum, which was true. I was the leader of the forum at that time. He said “go and tell him that it will not be fair for us to put a non-Lagosian as a Lagos state party chairman given the situation on the ground. Look at the speaker is from Ijebu Muslim, he’s not a Lagosian, then How do you now put a non-Lagosian as a chairman, we have to be restrained and we need to be careful.”

So, he said, “go and tell him, I know you are the one that can make him listen.” Tinubu and Femi are not dead, chief Taiwo is also very much alive.

So, if that is the person that is indifferent to ethnic or political calculations, he won’t send me on that kind of errand.