Adesina: How Buhari reacted to Tinubu’s ‘Emilokan’ campaign speech

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A former Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said ex-President Muhammadu Buhari had expressed gratitude when told him about President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Emilokan’ campaign speech.

Indeed, Tinubu, who was the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential aspirant had attracted reactions and comments with his ‘Emilokan’ speech made during a campaign to Ogun State delegates at Abeokuta.

In the speech, Tinubu had said Buhari wouldn’t have been President without his support, hence the 2023 presidential election was his turn.

And in his reaction, former APC National Chairman, Adamu Abdullahi, had said the ‘Emilokan speech’ cast aspersions on the office of the nation’s President and would, consequently, attract sanctions.

Adesina recalled that breaking the news of Tinubu’s speech to Buhari was a bit intriguing because the ex-President was in Spain for an event at the time Tinubu gave the speech in Abeokuta.

Adesina said those in the president’s entourage were worried about varied interpretations and how to break the news of the speech to Buhari.

At the end, they appointed Adesina to brief Buhari about the contentious speech during their return flight to Nigeria.

According to Adesina, “The visit (was) concluded, and we were to return home on Friday, June 3, when the social media exploded with reports from Nigeria, of comments made at a public event in Abeokuta, Ogun State, by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC National Leader and an aspirant for President in the forthcoming party primary.

“Asiwaju Tinubu said many things, but what touched on President Buhari directly was that without him (Asiwaju), Buhari would never have been President and that it was now his own turn to rule. Emilokan, my turn, in Yoruba language.

“We, the principal aides of the President, were in a dilemma on how to brief the President on what had happened, as it would not be right for him to get to Nigeria and be reading different versions and interpretations of what happened, which may be right or wrong.

“Myself, Ambassador Kazaure, (SCOP), Chief Security Officer to the President, Idris Ahmed Kasim, Mohammed Sarki Abba, Dr. Suhayb Rafindadi, Col. Yusuf Dodo, the Aide-De-Camp, and Tunde Sabiu, Special Assistant, put heads together, and decided that I should brief the President when we were airborne to Abuja. The motive was so that he would not get varied and possibly distorted versions.

“Few minutes into the flight, I approached the President and said I needed to bring him up to speed on something major that had happened back home.”

He said: “Ever a willing listener, the President told me to go ahead. I did a summary of the Emilokan speech, and when I ended, the President ruminated for some moments and responded: ‘Asiwaju said all that? Thank you for coming to brief me.”