Tinubu Yet to Make Gbajabiamila Chief of Staff, Group Clears, Says speaker desperate, personally selling the Narrative
A pro-Bola Tinubu presidency support group, Renewed Hope Advocates (RHA), has debunked a recent report that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, had considered the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as his chief of staff. The group in a statement made available to Apples Bite described the statement as kite-flying because there was no such consideration on the card at the time of the statement.
Director-General of RHA, the Pro Tinubu group, Olufemi-Daniels Agbaoku, said the speaker, whom he claimed had become “inexplicably desperate” about the job, was the one selling the narrative, with a view to being favored for the job by Tinubu, over and above anyone else.
Agbaoku, therefore, advised Tinubu to ignore the pressure being mounted by Gbajabiamila and his cronies and go for a more competent hand with the right temperament, mindset, and credibility for the job, because the president-elect could not be struggling with the legitimacy of his mandate at the moment and still battled the credibility crisis of his chief of staff.
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According to the man, whose group claimed to have played a critical part in the emergence of Tinubu at their level without seeking financial help from anyone except that they believed in his ability to change the tide, it was bad enough that Gbajabiamila became speaker despite reservations about him globally but argued that the office of the president could not be traded on such a “pedestrian altar of man knows man.”
His words: “We have it on our authority that the president-elect has yet to make any such commitment, but Gbajabiamila and his allies are selling the narrative to intimidate other alternatives, who might be better than him. It is so bad that he is said to have dispensed unbelievable favors to people around the president-elect to emerge as chief of staff.
“A man who lacks rudimentary credibility and exhibits corrupt tendencies cannot be entrusted with the position of chief of staff to the president. Tinubu, regardless of misgivings, worked hard for his victory and it is believed by most of us that he would do well as president. He represents the change Nigeria has been waiting for and he has to do everything to live this collective dream, starting with personal examples at all times.
“Although the appointment is personal, he has a responsibility to discourage the impression that Gbajabiamila is creating now among the people, especially the assumption that he is going to get it because he has money and has been doling out favors to everyone, including the president-elect himself. That would be starting on the wrong footing.
“While we hate to talk about his alleged misdemeanor in the United States, he has also not come out to discuss it, assuming it would go away. That is one issue that speaks to the gross credibility question. Assuming it amounts to nothing sets the Tinubu presidency on the wrong premise.
“We believe the president-elect knows the best and does what is right at the appropriate time. However, we also believe he should have appointed his chief of staff, as well as other related appointments. This would indicate he would hit the ground running. But if hurriedly appointing Gbajabiamila is the option before him now, he can wait to do better,” Agbaoku added.
Aside from the credibility question, which he claimed could not be compromised, he also reiterated that the speaker did not have the requisite temperament for the job. This included the depth and circumspection of the man befitting that office. This is because “that is the clearing house and the president de facto as we now know it, the modern presidency.”
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
