Mr Bayo Onanuga, a former Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and publisher, PM News, has denied jumping the ship of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the presidential race hots up.
Onanuga, a known Tinubu ally, said a report making the rounds that he had abandoned Tinubu for Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo is far from the truth.
“I am fully in support of Bola Tinubu. I am not in PYO’s camp and will not be in his camp if Tinubu is running,’’ said Onanuga who cut his journalistic teeth in the defunct African Concord magazine, floated by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
“My attention has been drawn to some lies being circulated about me as having jumped the Bola Ahmed Tinubu train and being against his presidential ambition.
“The faceless writer, I guess a hatchet hand wrote: `Almost all members of the Tinubu original power/intellectual base and allies when he was Governor are not in support of his Presidential ambition. Aregbesola, Afikuyomi, Ojudu, Onanuga, Alake, Fasola etc. Most of them may work for PYO’.
“Let me correct this misrepresentation straightforwardly: the statement is far from the truth as far as I am concerned. People who know me will attest to the fact that I am ever loyal to my friends, loyal to a political cause. I have been on the political left since 1978’when I joined Awolowo’s UPN as a UNILAG student.
“I am not a renegade. And I can vouch for Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi and Dele Alake as well. The author of the rumour was merely writing conjectures on an issue that is unpredictable, a party’s primary election, where an outsider will only Labour in vain in making permutations.
“As far as I am concerned, and let me say it loud and clear, I am in support of Bola Tinubu’s ambition. I am not against him. He is my first choice, the second choice and the third choice for the exalted seat,’’ Onanuga said in a statement given to Persecondnews on Saturday.
On the type of leader the country needs in post-Buhari administration, he posited: “Nigeria is in need of a visionary, a deep thinker, a man with the Midas touch, who can take our country on a journey of prosperity. This country has suffered enough and really needs a new leader who can breathe fresh air in it and change the way things are done.
“Nigeria needs a man of ideas, who will not just talk his way, but really get things done.I have no doubt that Bola Tinubu is capable of this, which is why I support his campaign to lead Nigeria.
“I have known him since 1992. I was part of his governorship campaign in 1998 before others were invited to his government after we won the election in January 1999.
“I was close to his government for eight years and I bore witness to the innovations he brought into governance, the overhauling of the system that he carried out, some of which other states and the Federal Government had copied.
“I have no iota of doubt that he will replicate the same at the centre, and even do more, if given the opportunity. These are the reasons I support his campaign. And Nigerians will hear more about my involvement in the next few days.’’
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