*Still hinges his hope on outcome of judiciary over Feb 25 election
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George, has passed a scorecard on the starting of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of Nigeria.
He said what he has done in his early days in Abuja as Nigerian leader is not perfect but, reasonably, better than his time as Lagos State governor between May 1999 and May 2007.
Responding to a jokingly asked question of whether, as military personality and considering the new security chiefs appointment, he is now friend to President Bola Tinubu, George, a former Military Governor of Old Ondo State, while speaking during a Channels Television’s Politics Today Tuesday night monitored in Lagos by The DEFENDER, said he is not his enemy but that they remain on different political paths.
He said Tinubu is in APC and “I am an irredentist PDP” and stated reason he can never leave the PDP for any other party, not even APC, he said.
“The major difference between Bola and I is his methodology, his managerial style, is unlike me. I have a background in the military and I am a logistician in the military. You don’t carry your men to war without adequately doing your serious planning, intelligence gathering,” the PDP chieftain said.
Asked of his assessment of the Tinubu’s administration in the last three weeks since the President assumed office on May 29, 2023, George said, “It is not a 100-metre race. He (Tinubu) is to manage his people and to manage the resources of this country for the betterment of this country. He is just starting off.”
When further asked to describe the performance of Tinubu in the last 22 days as Nigeria’s President, the Lagos-based PDP stalwart said, “It’s not perfect but reasonable. At least, it is better than what we had known before when he was in Lagos. May be he was much younger at that time and no experience but now, Lagos is not Abuja.”
George, a septuagenarian longtime political rival of Tinubu in Lagos, said he would take permission from the PDP should the President approach him to work together for the good of the country.
He, however, expressed confidence that his party and its candidate in the February 25 poll, Atiku Abubakar would emerge victorious at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
“Let’s wait for the outcome of the judiciary. The process is not over. The day the process is over and the court pronounce him as the President, we have no way to fight but to pray for Nigeria,” he said.
