According to a news that was published by the Punch paper online yesterday, it was reported that a former Senior Special Assistant on Policy Formulation and Programmes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he was serving as the governor of Lagos State, between the years 1999 and 2007, Dr Dapo Thomas, during an interview with Punch correspondent has said that, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is not a corrupt man.
During the interview, Dapo Thomas was told to reveal more about the disagreement he had with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he was still the governor of Lagos State and while he was reacting to this, he said that it was not a fight but people can call it misunderstanding between them.
While he was talking, he said, “On May 25, 2007, I had issues with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he expected me to praise him but I did not.”
He said it was during a send-off party that was organised for him by the state government, as judges, magistrates, legislators, the incoming governor and his wife, business moguls, bankers, entrepreneurs and government officials, including members of the executives, which was dissolved on May 22nd that year, were all invited to the occasion.
He said before the occasion, Tinubu gave some packages to commissioners and other people that worked with him in his administration, but he refused to give his Special Assistants anything and when he met Tinubu about it, he did not take him important.
However, he said during the send-off, one of the anchors of the send-off, informed him (Dapo Thomas) that he had been selected as one of the three people to speak about Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the event. And while he was speaking, instead of praising Tinubu for a successful governorship administration, he veered off completely from what people and Tinubu were expecting him to say and he raised the issue of the exclusion of the Special Assistants in the severance package.
He said, “In fact, to the shock of many guests, I called the act ‘Use and Dump.’ The two other speakers, including Tunji Bello, placated him with sweet exhortations.”
However, when Dapo Thomas was revealing what happened afterwards, he said after the ceremony, he went to his house and while he was reflecting on the incident that happened earlier, his phone rang.
He said, “On that same night of May 25th, 2007, Tinubu did two things that stunned me. Shortly after I got home, Mr Sunny Ajose, Special Adviser to the governor called me and said the governor would like to see me and that, I should come with the list of all the Special Assistants in the state. I was stunned. After the ceremony, instead of him (Tinubu) going to his house, because it was late, he reconstituted the executives, summoned all the members to an emergency meeting, and he approved all the prayers I put in the protest letter written earlier.”
Further talking, he said, “The two things were: 1. His humility and his respect for due diligence. 2. The approval was what he could do with his executive powers, but he chose to reconstitute the executives for that purpose. Since that day, my respect for him has multiplied. The interesting part of the story was that, I thought he would never forgive me, so I stayed away from him for about one year after we left office.
I did not go to see him, until September, 2008. The first thing Tinubu said was that, ‘Dapo Thomas, where have you been ?’ As I was about to explain myself, he gave me an invite to represent him at the 70th anniversary of Ikoyi Club. Since then, our relationship has been very good.”
Moses21 (
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