Former President Ibrahim Babangida, and his spokesperson, Kassim Afegbua‘War’ has just broken out between the spokesperson to former President Ibrahim Babangida, Kassim Afegbua and his boss over a controversial statement in which IBB was quoted as asking President Muhammadu Buhari not to contest for a second term in the 2019 Presidential election.
The spokesman has insisted that the statement from him represented Babangida stand and thoughts.
Afegbua, who spoke today, Sunday on a Channels television programme, against the backdrop of another statement credited to the former military president, stressed that Babangida approved of the contents of the statement as what should inform public discourse.
He said that it was Babangida’s position on having a new generation of young Nigerians to lead the nation as his stance over the years, adding that obvious evidence that the other statement did not emanate from Babangida was the description of the former president as GCON, instead of GCFR.
“I extracted a commitment from him, got authorization before I issued the statement. But, you know that IBB is for everyone, so people want to appreciate him more than he appreciates himself; people want to play the role of IBB.
“When this statement came on board and when some of his friends saw the twist of the reportage of the statement by the social media and how they sensationalised it, taking away the kernel of the contents of the statement, they felt that we were trying to put the former president on collision course with the current president.
“To that extent, they did a statement to deny his statement. I have since spoken with him (IBB) and he has said that the statement stands and that the kernel of that statement should be what informs public discourse and not people personalising it as if it were to be against the sitting president.
“I don’t have an idea of who wrote the other statement but once I saw the description of IBB as GCON, I knew that couldn’t have emanated from him because IBB is GCFR. Secondly, I arrived at Benin City at about 5.00 p.m., I was in Abuja when I issued that statement and after that, I had to catch my flight to Benin to engage in some other activities.”
[myad]
