How Tinubu-Led ACN Wanted Me To ‘Commit Fraud’ To Become Lagos Deputy Governor In 2007 – Jimi Agbaje

Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist and politician, has revealed why he turned down an offer by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to be Lagos Deputy Governor in 2007.

Agbaje, who has unsuccessfully contested to be Lagos governor on many occasions, was once a member of the ACN.

He left the party in 2007 to contest for the Lagos governorship election on the platform of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA).

Speaking in an interview with Chude Jideonwo, Agbaje said the Bola Tinubu-led ACN had asked him to drop his governorship ambition and become a running mate to another candidate in the party for the Lagos election.

“In 2007, before I left the ruling party (Action Congress of Nigeria), I was offered the deputy governor post, and I was told I couldn’t be the governor,” he said.

“I asked them, ‘to whom?’, and of course they said, ‘to this person’. And I said ‘but we are in the same senatorial district’. 

“And the answer was ‘we have worked that out, we will say you’re from this other senatorial district’. 

“But then, my attitude was ‘why not change it around and let the person who you want to be governor say he’s from that senatorial district’.

“I’m saying this to say that it’s not about just power for the sake of it. Because then, I could have been deputy governor.”

Recall that Babatunde Raji Fashola had emerged the governorship candidate of the ACN in 2007 and also won the election.

Peter Obi

Meanwhile, Jimi Agbaje stated that he has always wanted to be like Peter Obi.

Obi, the former vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 election, was the governor of Anambra state between 2007 and 2014.

According to Agbaje, the former governors style of leadership impressed him the most.

“He had always been my best governor even when I didn’t know him.

“I’ve always said that this was my best governor. He’s been the kind of governor I would want to be. He tried to be himself. He was there for service, not self,” he said.