EXTRA: ‘Tinubu right here to have a good time along with his former tormentors’ — Osinbajo jokes at IBB’s memoir launch

Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday jokingly remarked that President Bola Tinubu was now celebrating along with his former tormentors.

Osinbajo spoke throughout the public presentation of former navy president Ibrahim Babangida’s autobiography, “A Journey in Service”, on the Transcorp Hilton Resort in Abuja.

Reviewing the e-book, Osinbajo recalled how Tinubu, then a senator, resisted the dissolution of the senate beneath Sani Abacha, following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.

“After which, after all, there’s a gentleman right here who was an elected senator in 1992 due to Babangida’s transition programme,” the previous vice-president mentioned.

“When Babangida annulled the 1993 election and Normal Abacha took over, dissolved the senate, that senator tried to reconstitute the senate in resistance to the dissolution.

“He was detained, charged to court docket, and later escaped into exile. As we speak, he’s right here, celebrating along with his former tormentors—however because the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu.”

Tinubu’s political profession started in 1991 when he joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and actively campaigned for Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO), the occasion’s presidential candidate.

In 1992, he was elected to the senate, representing Lagos west district, the place he chaired the committee on banking, finance, appropriation, and forex.

Following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, Tinubu grew to become a founding member of the Nationwide Democratic Coalition (NADECO)—a pro-democracy group that pushed for the restoration of democracy and recognition of Abiola because the rightful winner of the election.

Throughout this wrestle, Tinubu and different pro-democracy activists had been arrested and detained by the navy regime of Abacha.

He fled into exile in 1994, persevering with the struggle for democracy by way of NADECO’s worldwide community.

After Abacha’s loss of life in 1998, Tinubu returned to Nigeria and joined politics as democracy was restored.

He was elected governor of Lagos State beneath the Alliance for Democracy (AD).