Untouchable Tinubu!..How Ex Gov -And Journalism Great – Segun Osoba Missed Out On One Of The Biggest Scoops Of Modern Times

Charles Oyelesi

It is a fact, Aremo Segun Osoba’s book ‘’Battles Lines: Adventures in Journalism And Politics’’ is an engaging read.

But the master journalist and consummate politician – by commission or omission – lost out in documenting one of the biggest scoops of modern times that would have further established the autobiography as an ‘’all-time read’’.

The trailblazer in journalism – and politics – failed to touch on how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu became the only Alliance for Democracy (AD) Governor standing when all other AD governors (including Osoba) lost the 2003 election in the agreement to help President Olusegun Obasanjo of the People’s Democratic Party retain his seat with a win the South West.

Obasanjo secured re-election but all the AD governors in the South-West lost the bid to remain in power, except Tinubu.

Tinubu has since leveraged on the development to become a political phenomenon that dwarfs others, especially in the South- West.

How Tinubu escaped in the alliance with Obasanjo that purged all other AD governors from office remains a source of constant speculations and conjectures.

‘’For a journalist and politician of his pedigree, I expected Aremo Osoba to find a way to touch on that…provide answers to some of the questions about what happened as a historian and one of journalism’s great as well as elder statesman’’ a reader stated.

Osoba failed to give any detail, even when a perfect opportunity provided itself in the Addendum tagged ‘’Replying It As It Is’’ which disputed claims in more senior politician Ayo Adebanjo’s book ‘’Telling It As It Is’’.

Ayo Adebanjo alleged Osoba ‘’ masterminded and influenced’’ the ill-fated alliance with Obasanjo that inflicted a heavy cost on the Alliance for Democracy in the 2003 election, Osoba described the accusation in many words as ‘’beyond reasonable limit’’.

Obasanjo and Osoba are from Egbaland (Abeokuta), Ogun State.

Even when he talked about ‘’Emergence Of All Progressives Congress’’ in chapter 19, Osoba stayed well off the burning questions of how Tinubu escaped the 2003 purge either as background or as a point of reference.

The same silence was maintained in the Chapter 17 which focused on ‘’Obasanjo, Ogun State, And The 2003 Elections’’.

‘’For a man who became one of the best in his chosen career reporting developments and issues that affect the nation ( sourcing details from others) and transformed into one of the torch lights of his region, I expected him to provide the scoop or at least provide answers to questions about such a pivotal period (as it regards how Tinubu who worked hand -in -glove with them survived the purge ) he was an integral part of for the sake of prosperity in a timeless book like his autobiography’’ another reader opined.

Societynow.ng gathered that the ‘’silence’’ of Osoba on how Tinubu escaped unscathed further adds colors and fuel to speculations about what transpired amongst the Alliance for Democracy governors made up of Segun Osoba( Ogun State), Bola Tinubu (Lagos State), Lam Adesina (Oyo), Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti), Bisi Akande (Osun State) and Adebayo Adefarati (Ondo State) and their party leaders in the ‘’unholy alliance’’ that hastened the collapse of the party.