Violent #EndSARS protest targeted at Tinubu won’t stop 2023 ambition —Joe Igbokwe

A former spokesman of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Joe Igbokwe has alleged that the violence that crept into the #EndSARS protests in Lagos was targeted at the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his 2023 ambition.

Igbokwe made the allegation in an article on Thursday, in which he absolved the Igbos in Lagos of being the brains behind the burning of several public and private buildings in the state.

Igbokwe, in the article, also called on well-meaning Igbos from across the world to caution and call the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu to order, arguing that his latest outburst and directives on places to attack, were capable of putting Igbos all over the country in danger.

Insisting that he knows Lagos and the South-West enough, Igbokwe argued that Tinubu has a lot of enemies, who he accused of being behind the #ENDSARS protests from day one before it eventually became violent.

He however insisted that nothing can truncate Tinubu’s 2023 presidential ambition, concluding that it was an idea whose time had come.

He wrote in part: “Igbo in Lagos do not possess the character and the courage to invade His Royal Majesty Oba Akiolu’s Palace in Lagos Island, TVC, LTV, CHANNELS TV, ORIENTAL HOTEL, GTB, BRT, NATION. My people will say in an adage that: It is rat inside the house that will tell the rat outside the house that there is something in the house. We have to look inside. I have been in Lagos enough and deeply too, close to Asiwaju to know all his enemies in Lagos and Yoruba Nation, and it is political. Every PDP member in the South West does not like Asiwaju until they entered AD, AC, ACN and APC. I was the spokesperson of our party for close to 14 yrs, and I know what I am talking about. They see Asiwaju as the dominator of the environment and armour-bearer of South-West politics. They put all their political failures on the doorsteps of Asiwaju BAT. If it rains heavily, it is Asiwaju that caused it. If there are thunderstorms, it is Asiwaju that caused it. If their businesses, fail it is Asiwaju that caused it. If their wives cannot get pregnant, it is Asiwaju that caused it. Success breeds envy. As you are going up, some people are going down, and those going down will not like those going up.

“The political hate for Asiwaju BAT has no boundary even in Nigeria. It goes beyond Nigeria. The PDP Nigeria knows it was Asiwaju that defeated them, not President BUHARI. PMB came in 2003 and did not win, PMB came in 2007 and did not win, PMB came in 2011. It did not succeed until ASIWAJU’s political sagacity, creativity, and strategy pushed South West ACN to ally with CPC, ANPP, and some APGA members to give birth to APC. This is the root cause of this hate.

“If you are a deep political thinker with great eyes, if you follow political events like I do every day, if you are a good student of politics and if you have third eyes you will know at once that Asiwaju BAT has built an intimidating, formidable and unputdownable political networks across Nigeria to the extent that it is difficult now if not impossible for anybody to stop him from becoming the President of Nigeria in 2023, all things considered. Only God can stop him, and this I know very well. The strategic, well-coordinated, clinical attacks on his interests in Lagos is well planned, well structured and clinically delivered to stop him in 2023 at all cost but will it stop him? No sir!

“Asiwaju is not the only Governor that ruled Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. Where are other 35 governors, and why are they not trending like Asiwaju after 13 years out of power? You cannot stop an idea whose time has come. You cannot cover the sun with bare hands.

“While they are busy burning bridges across Nigeria, Asiwaju BAT has been building bridges across Nigeria since 1999, East, West, North or South. As I speak to you now, he has formidable and intimidating networks and groups across the 36 States in Nigeria, including Abuja. This is the reason they started the war against him.”