Tinubu should not lord himself over others, says Lekan Balogun

OLUSESAN LAOYE

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Lekan Balogun, has said that the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, should not in any way lord himself over others at the expense of the overall interest of the entire country.

Senator Balogun, who is also a High Chief of Ibadanland, in an exclusive interview with Hallmark in Ibadan, argued that it was not proper for anybody to want to dictate to others.

Balogun, while reacting to insinuations that the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Dogara was meant to cut the wings of Bola Tinubu, argued, “The role you play should be determined by the wishes of the people. You should not lord yourself over the people. If what they are saying is what is happening, I think it is wrong.

“He should wait for democracy to take its process and to get the process to assign roles for people. He should not scheme to lord himself over anybody. In a way, what happened in the National Assembly is a good development to check that tendency, if truly he has that tendency”.

Senator Balogun further pointed out that the process that produced Saraki and Dogara was transparent enough because it was done on the floors of the two chambers, saying that both National Assembly leaders are Nigerians and members of the Senate and the House of Representatives and not people from outside the Assembly.

He argued that it was wrong for some people to stay in one corner to dictate what should happen in the National Assembly, saying that he was once a senator and the procedure was for the leaders to be elected on the floor of the House, which was what happened.

He said he was shocked to hear that the leaders of the APC said they were shocked about the emergence of Saraki.

“Why should they be shocked? That is why I said that Nigerian politicians do things for their selfish interests and not for the global interests of Nigerians.”

On the PDP having only two states in the South West, Senator Balogun said, “I don’t feel too good and I don’t have political aspirations for myself anymore. I am like everybody’s father now.”

“The situation is not good for the PDP. Leaders of the party must put their heads together and do what they can to reverse the situation. The way democracy works and with the law of dialectics, events would solve themselves out with time.”

On whether the situation in the National Assembly is a pointer to the fact that the South West was heading towards being marginalised again, he said nobody knew that Bukola Saraki would emerge as the Senate president but that he emerged.

“There would be a lot of more surprises to come. We have to be fair in sharing the positions in the country. Dialectics like I said before, is a law that takes care of things like that, I don’t want to bother myself about it. I don’t have the slightest fear that South West could be marginalized.”