2023: Bode George Is Pseudo-Yoruba, Should Take Hands Off Tinubu’s Matter – Alawuje

The National President of the Yoruba Welfare Group, Comrade Adegoke Alawuje has advised a former National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George to distant himself from any Yoruba project as he is not a full-blooded Yoruba.

In a release issued on Thursday, Alawuje responded to Chief George’s recent criticism of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu 2023 presidential ambition and those supporting him.

Alawuje said only true and bonafide Yoruba indigenes should comment on Yoruba projects.

George was reported to have equally stated that those pushing for Tinubu to be president needed medical examination. He also threatened to renounce his citizenship and relocate to another country should Tinubu emerge president.

The chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party accused the APC leader of lackluster performance during his tenure as a governor between 1999 and 2007.

It will be recalled that Chief George similarly threatened to go on self-imposed exile should President Muhammadu Buhari win 2015 general election. He has however refused to carry out his threat ever since President Buhari won 2015 and 2019 elections respectively.

Alawuje noted that Chief George has been a very vicious and caustic critic of Tinubu as he advised him to stop venturing into the exclusive Yoruba affiars. He accused the PDP chieftain of always working against Yoruba’s interests because he has no trace of his grand parents and great grand parents in the Yoruba land.

“How can a foreigner or a migrant tell the real house owners on how to arrange their house. We have not forgotten how his fore father, a freed slave was brought to Yoruba land after the abolition of slave trade.

“Bode George is free to trace where his grand father was bought as a slave from within the West Africa subregion by a White man called Mr George from North America.

“Can you imagine Mr George saying he would rather cease to be a Nigerian than see Tinubu emerge as the president of Nigeria. In the first instance, he is never a Nigerian. His fore father was a slave brought from Seria Leone. If he’s now threatening to relocate outside Nigeria, it is not a big deal, let him go back to his root.

Alawuje remarked that when it’s time for Yoruba sons and daughters to gather for proper reconciliation, Chief George’s name will surely be missing, saying such reconciliation will only include full blooded Yorubas not migrants who couldn’t successfully trace their roots to Nigeria, how much more to Yoruba land.

“It’s quite disheartening and unheard-of. How can the family members – the Yorubas – be deliberating how one of their blood would be presented to contest for Nigeria’a president and an alien will be grumbling. This is a big insult to the entire Yoruba race.

Alawuje asked the PDP chieftain to remember how he was forced out of the military during Gen Sani Abacha, advising him not to allow history to repeat itself on him as a resident in Yoruba land.

He warned that the Yorubas of 1950’s are different from the Yourubas of nowadays, noting that Yorubas are now fully aware and better informed.

YWG head remarked that Bode George would have been ignored for his inconsequential relevance in the scheme of the Southwest, but for the fact that an alien should not be allowed to dictate the pace for the land owners.

“To prove my point, Bode George personally gave tacit support to invaders who hid under the EndSARS protest to destroy Lagos and attack Tinubu property. Most of the invaders who came from outside Lagos to hijack the protest immediately returned to their region after the carnage. If he’s a true Yoruba son how can he endorse the destruction of his father’s house and heritage by invaders. What was his response to the sacrilege those idiots perpetrated at the palace of the Oba of Lagos, if I may ask?

Alawuje told Chief George to prepare to relocate to where his grand father was bought from if Tinubu eventually becomes President, since it is most probable that the former govermor of Lagos State would win the poll, God willing.

He also challenged Mr Bode George to explain the part of Yoruba land that bears George as a family name,

“If the Yoruba race came from a single family of Oodua and later spread across Yoruba land, we can still recognize any of our brothers whereever he settles, irrespective of his location, but we will be very glad if Olabode George can explain the link of his forefather to the Oodua dynasty and his companions.

“We have seen Bode George condemn Tinubu consistently but he keeps burning candles on how to make Peter Obi our next president. How do you describe such a personality.

“I have said it repeatedly that the issues between the Yorubas and any other ethnic group is inconsequential compared with the ‘war’ within because of the personalities like Chief Bode George in our midst.

Alawuje reminded Mr George to remember that a convict is not given any recognition in Yoruba land, saying ex-convict does not speak when real Omoluabis are on the stage.

He stressed that if Bode George is truly a Yoruba son, he would not have celebrated and showcased the completion of his jail term, saying no Yoruba man does that, notwithstanding the amnesty he got afterwards.

YWG President explained that Yoruba values are completely at variance with that of Bode George.

He reiterated that Tinubu as a true Yoruba son of Yoruba and as the only Yoruba who has so far shown readiness and capacity to rule Nigeria remains a qualified candidate of the Southwest. He explained that YWG as a Yoruba socio-cultural organisation will not fold its arms and allow the son of a freed slave brought to Lagos to detail the true Yoruba agenda.

As a pan-Yoruba group, the YWG President maintained that it would be idiotic of them not to support Tinubu considering his contributions to the Yoruba land and Nigeria at large.

He challenged Chief Olabode George to mention or outline the values he has ever added to Yoruba land.

“The Tinubu we know has all his investments in Nigeria, but what investment has Bode George in Nigeria, apart from stealing the future of this country and being in and out of prison.

“Tinubu has made several champions and world class politicians across Yorubaland and even beyond, such as governors, Senators, federal and state lawmakers, ministers, traditional rulers, successful businessmen and women and several others. Infact, he made a Vice-President with no other individual that can be compared with him, apart from the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. How then will a true Yoruba son speak against the interest of such personality. Let him go and settle whatever personal scores he has with Tinubu rather than betraying his age in the public sphere.

“His threats did not start today. So, threatening to relocate to another country will have no meaning until he could tell us, at least, five major positively impactful he has ever made or added to the lives of Yoruba sons and daughters or to our land for over sixteen years in the corridors of power, apart from benefitting himself and his immediate family.

Alawuje said while Yorubas must accept that alien children in their midst have grown up, he assured Nigerians that YWG has undiluted facts to push them to where they truly belong.