The Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Political
Matters, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, has cautioned the Senator representing the
defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the National Assembly, Senator Femi
Lanlehin, not to bite the hand that fed him.
He made this known in a release issued on Monday in response
to an interview granted by the senator casting aspersion on Governor Ajimobi
and his developmental efforts in the state.
“What Lanlehin did in that interview is tantamount to biting
the finger that fed him. I could recall vividly that after the gubernatorial
primaries of the ACN when he failed to pick the ticket of the party, he
immediately moved to the Accord Party of Rashidi Ladoja.
~Indeed, his supporters are still there till today. Senator
Ajimobi not only personally went to him to wave the olive branch at him, but
has since extended brotherly affection to the Senator. Indeed, at a meeting in
Ibadan, he openly begged Lanlehin to let them work together for the uplift of
the party. It is a pity that Lanlehin is bent on the journey to self-destruct,”
Alhaji Ibikunle said.
Wondering why Lanlehin would descend to the extent of
denigrating the governor’s highly applauded achievements in the state on pages
of newspapers when he could discuss the issues he raised with the party or even
the governor himself, Ibikunle said if the senator wanted to join his kit and
kin in the Accord Party, he could do that without setting the state of fire.
The Ajimobi aide, who was one of late Alhaji Lamidi Adesina’s
trusted loyalists and aides, said that before his death, the late former
governor had expressed concern about the senator’s personalization of political
office, as against Governor Ajimobi’s demonstration of respect for the party
and its leadership.
“Immediately he became Senator, all Lanlehin’s aides were
personally selected by him without the input of the ACN leadership. Alhaji Lam
was not pleased with this tendency towards personalization and compared this
with that of Governor Ajimobi who subjected the choice of his aides to the
party leadership’s rigour and approval,” Ibikunle said.
Alhaji Ibikunle also said that the late Alhaji Lam was
worried about Senator Lanlehin’s unstable political loyalty, having been a
trusted aide of former Governor Bola Tinubu and abandoning the ACN leader for
the PDP, before making a detour to the ACN.
“But he promised Alhaji Lam that he would not engage in party
prostitution again. He was always at the late leader’s house every morning
begging to be brought back from his romance with conservatives and siding with
Obasanjo to ease the progressives out of power in 2003.
It was my intervention and that of Governor Ajimobi that got
him his senatorial ticket. Now, he is set to go back to his vomit and return to
where we had always suspected he was heading for. But politics should be more
of principle and not exhibition of base sentiments,” he said.
