Associate Professor of History in the Lagos State University, Dapo Thomas, has revealed how a personal letter he wrote to leader of Afenifere, late Senator Abraham Adesanya a day before the group meeting in Ijebu Igbo made the group to endorse Tinubu in the primaries prior to the 1999 Governorship elections to usher in fourth republic.
He made this revelation in his recently launched autobiography titled- Lagos Boy and Lagos Politics.
According to him,as at December 14,1998,the Alliance for Democracy(AD) was yet to decide on its candidate for the governorship position for an election than was less than a month away.
He disclosed that before the Afenifere- which was the core plank of the party held the decisive Ijebu Igbo meeting, the AD was divided between three candidates namely, Funsjo Williams,Bola Tinubu and Dr Wahab Dosunmu,a former Minister during the Second Republic.
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He said the decision to write a letter to Adesanya to argue for a Tinubu candidacy was leaked to him by a friend who advised that since Adesanya was an avid reader of his column, he should ensure the letter was delivered to Adesanya before the Afenifere crucial meeting on December 14 where the fate of the three aspirants would be decided.
Professor Thomas who later became a Special Assistant to Tinubu said the race before then was keenly between Funso Williams and Tinubu adding that only the late Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu was rooting for Wahad Dosunmu..
However,other strong members of the Afenifere like the late Pa Onasanya,Abraham Adesanya,Ayo Adebamjo,Femi Okunrounmu, Reuben Fasoranti,who is current Afenifere leader,Olanihun Ajayi,Olu Falae,Adebayo Adefarati,Alhaji Adeyemo, A Adegbomire,were sharply divided between late Funso Williams and Bola Tinubu.
In his letter to Adesanya he posed the question, “If I may ask,sir,what have been Funso Williams contributions to the JUNE 12 struggle which you are spearheading. He was in Colonel Olagunsoye Oyinlolas cabinet as commissioner for works. He served briefly under Colonel Buba Marwa.This in essence means that while Bola Tinubu was putting his life in danger for JUNE 12 actualization,Funsho Williams was busy reaping from JUNE 12.Sir, I may have cause to write you again,but I believe that this letter would be useful to you during your crucial meeting in Ijebu Igbo when deciding who should represent the State in the governorship election “.
As a result,he said Adesanya received the letter and eventually persuaded others to support Tinubu in the primaries to become the flagbearer and went on to defeat the other candidates of the other parties in a landslide victory.
In the governorship election, Tinubu scored 841,000 votes,Dapo Sarumi of PDP scored 184,000 votes and Nosiru Kekere -Ekun scored 122,000 votes.
Tinubu also won in nineteen out of the twenty local governments in the state.
