The former governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello is a true definition of a friend for all seasons; in good and bad times, He will always show up for anyone he believes in without regard for what he stands to gain or lose.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no doubt a beneficiary of Yahaya Bello’s exemplary style of friendship and this was evident in the build up to the 2023 presidential election where the former kogi state governor went all out for the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the president of Nigeria.
It would be recalled that Yahaya Bello held one of the largest rallies in the North Central zone to solicit support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He gathered thousands of people at the prestigious Lokoja stadium and spoke to the people to vote for APC even more than they did in 2019.
He went as far as spending his personal resources to protect the interest of his party and on a larger scale, win the votes of the populace for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; very few people would do that.
However, it’s quite appalling that some elements in the media have started sponsoring videos to state that Yahaya Bello was against the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president. These elements have been identified as SDP media agents.
In the video which was extracted from Channels TV, they alleged that Yahaya Bello didn’t support President Tinubu because he was against zoning the presidential ticket to the south. This is a testament that these media agents would do anything just to push a narrative because by this act, Yahaya Bello simply showed that he is a leader who wants everything to be done the right way. The Nigerian constitution makes no provision for zoning and a ruling party adopting that approach would set a wrong precedent. By disagreeing with the zoning arrangement, Yahaya Bello didn’t disapprove of President Tinubu’s presidency; he only wanted to ensure the process that would produce a candidate will be democratic.
When Yahaya Bello noticed that some people in the ruling party wanted to illegally disqualify some presidential aspirants because they are from the ‘minority’ after purchasing nomination forms, he stood for himself and other aspirants, warning them not to attempt it because it would tamper with the democratic process. To the opposition, this heroic act of Yahaya Bello was seen as an attack against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; this once again underscores their inability to think right.
Among their allegations against Yahaya Bello was that he said President Tinubu was too old and weak to lead Nigeria. Till today, they still can’t come up with solid evidence to back up this allegation.
It is worthy of note that Yahaya Bello immediately collapsed his massive structure into that of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in order to ensure victory for the All Progressive Congress. How else does one support an individual if not by doing all of these?
SDP should know that by now, they can’t break the bond between President Tinubu and Yahaya Bello, it’s too late already but they should desist from sharing falsehood because they can’t bear the pain of loss.