The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has responded to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who mocked him for adopting the ‘freedom’ slogan for his 2019 aspiration.
Tinubu had, while addressing members of the All Progressives Congress on Monday, said, “Those who said they want freedom should go and learn tailoring and vulcanising and we will do freedom for them later.”
However, in a statement on Tuesday, Agbaje likened Tinubu to the biblical Pharaoh of Egypt who refused to allow the children of Israel to leave but kept them in bondage until God sent down 10 plagues that forced Pharaoh’s hand.
“Pharaoh, you must let our people go!” Agbaje said.
“Apparently, the APC leader has lost touch with reality,” Agbaje said in a press statement by his Director of Media and Publicity, Felix Oboagwina.
“Otherwise, he would know that, like the children of Israel, Lagosians are groaning under the taskmaster that Tinubu and his cronies have turned themselves into in this state that should rate as Nigeria’s foremost,” he added.
Recalling that the biblical Pharaoh finally granted liberty to the Israelites only after several vicious plagues, Agbaje said, Lagosians would be liberated after the people might have delivered an electoral disgrace to the APC in 2019.
He also said that his campaign slogan mirrored the same spirit that moved Nelson Mandela to declare his long walk to freedom in an apartheid South Africa.
Agbaje said, “We identify
with our vulcanisers, tailors and all craftsmen who have the joy of
duly-earned freedom after their apprenticeship.
“But it is
apparent that, unlike them, those who have gotten used to filthy lucre
and the dividends of corruption cannot savour the joy that comes with
the legitimate sweat and labour of hardworking artisans.”
He argued that Lagos State must be freed from the era of nepotism and corruption that saw a private firm maintaining a stranglehold on the state’s funds, contrary to global best practices.
