FORMER Lagos governor, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have left the United States, hurriedly, at the weekend in order to avoid being questioned by the American authorities for allegedly trumping a false “gold card invitation” to attend the Democratic National Committee’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week.
Tinubu, a two-term governor of Lagos who was also a senator of the failed third republic, allegedly bolted out of the United States and arrived Nigeria on Saturday in order to avoid being questioned, said our sources, for the claims made by an aide who said that Mr. Tinubu was invited in his capacity as the official leader of “opposition in Nigeria,” a claim that has since been rejected by a DNC source.
Tinubu and the said aide, Mr. Sunday Dare, have been challenged by members of the Nigerian immigrant community, both on social media outlets on Facebook where the topic has taken a life of its own, and at the convention ground, to provide invites signed by President Barack Obama to attend the event.
A response has yet to be issued by Mr. Tinubu to the serious allegations.
Instead, obvious attempts are being orchestrated to discredit sharpedgenews.com as the source of the original report published on Saturday, with claims that the report is being sponsored by Dr. Doyin Okupe, the recently appointed special assistant on publicity to President Jonathan.
Mr. Oladimeji Abitogun, the editor-in-chief of sharpedgenews.com, has strongly dispelled such notion as “ruthless, baseless and ill-conceived,” adding that “no one at sharpedgenews.com has any such contacts” with Mr. Okupe.
“While it is not impossible that certain outlets may have been employed to reproduce our initial report on this matter, we are not aware any such request and it would be foolhardy, if not irresponsible, of anyone to attempt to smear us with the charge that Aso Rock dictates story ideas or editorial contents to us,” Mr. Abitogun said.
The conduct of some of Tinubu’s aides originally triggered the irritation of the Nigerian community at the Charlotte convention. The trip was sold to the Nigerian public under the impression that the“gold card invitation” came from President Obama. It was later obvious that key members of the DNC and President Obama did not enjoy any kind of personal relationship with Mr. Tinubu – contrary to the impression given Nigerians.
The Tinubu delegation also did not enjoy the kind of VIP treatment given to the members of the diplomatic community present at the event.
Sharpedgenews.com had reported in the initial edition of this story that anyone who paid over five thousand dollars received the generic invitation to attend the convention. Exactly how much Mr. Tinubu paid or how much was paid on his behalf is not known.
However, sharpedgenews.com learned that Tinubu’s attendance at the event may have been facilitated by his Chicago contacts, contrary to the impression that a personal invitation was issued to Mr. Tinubu by President Obama.
Sharpedgenews.com further learned that it is the norm for American presidents to “minimize interactions with foreign contacts before and immediately after presidential elections,” which is another proof that it was impossible for Mr. Tinubu to have enjoyed the privilege of a personal, high-level invite from Mr. Obama.
According to sharpedgenews.com investigations, the poor handling of what should have been a private self-improving outing for Mr.Tinubu was bungled by his media team, who tried to employ the opportunity to emotionally and politically hoodwink Nigerians in the mold of what is often referred to as a “been to” in Nigeria.
In Charlotte and in London, Nigerians aware of the development could not help expressing disgust at the manner in which Sunday Dare and the publisher of African Abroad, Alex Kabbah, treated Tinubu like a tribal king.
“If the man coughed, Alex Kabbah and Sunday Dare would near of bring down the roof because someone did not make a cup of water available for Asiwaju at the right time,” one of our citizen reporters volunteered, having been assigned to closely watch the role of the Tinubu team. “Sunday Dare wind-surfed as a big suck-up,” said one of the callers who took umbrage on the initial report.
Sharpedgenews.com also observed that Tinubu was as well present at the convention of the US Republican Party which held the previous week in Tampa, Florida.
Accompanying Mr. Tinubu on the trips was Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, who was a lot more restrained and less flamboyant than the ACN leader. Mr. Dele Alake, who also attended the event with Tinubu, was also of restrained comport.
The designation of Mr. Tinubu as the official leader of opposition in Nigeria was also one of the reasons why sharpedgenews.com investigaged the so-called “gold card invitation” allegedly issued to Mr. Tinubu.
Nigeria does not operate a parliamentary system of government where an official opposition leader is recognized. How exactly Mr. Tinubu got the description as leader of opposition, when he is not an elected official remains open to debate.