A former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria has reaffirmed his loyalty to the presidential ambition of the All Progressives Congress aspirant, Bola Tinubu, by denying claims that he had switched camps ahead of the 2023 election.
Onanuga was responding to an article which claimed that he, alongside others who had worked with the former governor of Lagos State in the past, may have pitched their tent with the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who declared his intention to run for president under the APC.
According to the veteran journalist, he had known Tinubu for a long period of time, was part of his governorship campaign in 1998 and was close to his administration for eight years.
He stated that the article was based on the APC presidential primary, which is on the basis of an incomplete premise.
Onanuga wrote, “I am fully in support of Bola Tinubu. I am not in PYO’s camp and will not be in his camp if Tinubu is running.
People who know me will attest to the fact that I am ever loyal to my friends, loyal to a political cause. I have been on the political left since 1978 when I joined Awolowo’s UPN as a UNILAG student.
I am not a renegade. And I can vouch for Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi and Dele Alake as well.
The author of the rumour was merely writing conjectures on an issue that is unpredictable, a party’s primary election, where an outsider will only labour in vain in making permutations.
“As far as I am concerned, and let me say it loud and clear, I am in support of Bola Tinubu’s ambition. I am not against him. He is my first choice, the second choice and the third choice for the exalted seat.
I have known him since 1992. I was part of his governorship campaign in 1998 before others were invited to his government after we won the election in January 1999.
I was close to his government for eight years and I bore witness to the innovations he brought into governance, the overhauling of the system that he carried out, some of which other states and the Federal Government had copied.
I have no iota of doubt that he will replicate the same at the centre, and even do more, if given the opportunity.
