A former spokesman of the Atiku Campaign Organisation and gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election in Ogun State, Otunba Segun Sowunmi has advised President Bola Tinubu to form the Government of National Unity, saying this is the panacea for peace and development in the country.
Sowunmi made this known while participating in a virtual interactive session with the members of the League of Yoruba Media Practitioners, a group of media professionals who ply their trade in the Yoruba indigenous language.
When asked to assess the government of President Bola Tinubu and whether a government of national unity is desirable; Otunba Sowunmi said, the eight million votes garnered by Tinubu during the last election is not enough for him to succeed as a President, he needs to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor and bring everyone together, irrespective of their ethnic, religion or political background.
In his words, he said; “It is our job to keep watching him, we all agreed that they should remove subsidy, on the service chiefs, we must avoid wasting the capacity of our military, the major thing is that all the ethnic groups are watching us, they are saying that the Yorubas are cornering all the major appointments.
“The Hausas, the Ibos, are all other ethnic groups and looking, say the Yorubas have it now, we will see how they will handle it. The Chief of Army Staff is a Yoruba man, the IG of Police is a Yoruba man, the Customs CG a Yoruba man, and the CBN head is also a Yoruba man, they won’t be surprised if a Yoruba man also becomes the Minister of Finance. All these steps that Tinubu is taking they are monitoring and watching, I can say this because we are close to them.
“That is why we are telling Tinubu to watch it and be careful, and anyone who does not want his father to be killed on the battlefront must watch the father and monitor him. We are praying for him to succeed.
“That is why we are counseling him to form a Government of National Unity, just like we had in the days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Because the declared winner in the last election got a little over 8 million, the second and third also got over 6 million, all these added together are not up to half of the voting population.
“Is it the 8 million votes that will help you to cover all over the nation, or do you think the police and soldiers will do the work, no! You need to bring everyone to the team for you to succeed. I won’t attack my country, I won’t bring the nation down, and won’t speak ill of the President. If they can stand by their own, no reason for me not to stand by my kinsman too. I never attacked him, which is why I was against those abusing him then.”