Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George, has revealed that President Bola Tinubu sent his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to persuade him to reconsider his decision to leave Nigeria after Tinubu’s election victory.
In 2022, George had threatened to leave Nigeria after Tinubu announced his presidential bid in January.
His statement at the time read: “I will move away from Nigeria. I’ll leave because he will be your representative on the international plane. Which investment will he bring here? I am not talking because I have any hatred for him.
“This is not the kind of person we can hand over this massive country to manage. He will be the greatest joke on the international plane. We should bother who should lead us.
“If by whatever chance he gets to the villa, I won’t be part of this country. And I am not joking. I can go to Ghana and be watching with binoculars from afar. You will see what will happen.”
Reflecting on the situation during an appearance on Arise TV on Wednesday, George recounted how Gbajabiamila visited him with a message from Tinubu, urging him to reconsider his stance.
He said, “During the campaign period, I stated it and I meant it—that if by whatever measure Bola Tinubu wins this election, I was going to get out.
“Once they heard that, Tinubu sent his chief of staff, who is my little brother from Lagos State, Femi Gbajabiamila, to appeal to me.
“He came to say, ‘My boss said I should tell you, please be calm’. They knew they had wronged me. They said they were sorry.”
George further discussed the internal crisis within the PDP leading up to the 2023 presidential election, pointing out how tensions and disagreements escalated and urging aggrieved members to resolve their differences.
He stated, “The last convention, the presidential convention, was when everything started, and instead of arresting it, they were exacerbating it.
“With all that, you cannot have the chairman of the party and the presidential candidate from one side of the divide—they didn’t listen.”
He also recounted his conversation with Iyorchia Ayu, the former party chairman, about Ayu’s commitment to step down if the presidential candidate emerged from the North.
He said, “Ayu made a public statement that peradventure the presidency comes from the north, he would resign. But when the results were announced, he said, ‘I have four years; I’m not going anywhere’.
“This is breach of trust! Of course, people would react to that. It’s against the party constitution to have the chairman of the party and the presidential candidate from the same zone—it is an anomaly.
“I want to appeal to the leaders of the various groups in the party that it is time to shelve your personal ambitions and let us rebuild the party.
“There is no organisation in the world without crisis, but the ability to rebuild the crisis is needed.
“This crisis didn’t start now; it started from the presidential convention and nobody was able to manage it.
“Atiku and Wike should calm down and let us go to the elders meeting where we would start this discussion, to trace this crisis back to that convention, because that was where everything started going in the wrong direction.”