Ex-Aide Says Tinubu Was Humiliated Under Buhari and Tells Atiku to Step Aside

Ex-Aide Says Tinubu Was Humiliated Under Buhari and Tells Atiku to Step Aside

A podcast account revives old ruling-party wounds

Laolu Akande, who served as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, has said President Bola Tinubu was systematically sidelined inside the All Progressives Congress between 2015 and 2023. Akande made the remarks on the Naija Unfiltered podcast, published by Symfoni TV, in an interview aired on Friday, October 23, 2026, according to Nigerian media reports dated October 24.

Seated behind an aide: the humiliation detail

Akande said he personally witnessed Tinubu being relegated at party meetings. "What did they not do against Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Tell me, what did they not do? Even between 2015 and 2023, the man was marginalised. I saw him with my korokoro eyes," he said. "I sat in meetings where they put Bola Ahmed Tinubu behind me," he added, presenting the seating as evidence that Tinubu was denied the recognition his role in Buhari's 2015 victory warranted.

Two rejected names show a blocked pipeline

Akande alleged that ministerial nominees put forward by Tinubu were rejected by power brokers around Buhari, naming Dele Alake and Wale Edun. "Alake was nominated; Edun was nominated. They went to choose the ones that he did not nominate to just make a point that you can't dictate for us," he said. Alake is now minister of solid minerals, and Edun went on to serve as finance minister under Tinubu, a contrast Akande used to underline his point.

APC rebuts claim, presidency silent

Buhari's camp and the presidency had not issued a formal response to Akande's account at the time the reports were published, while APC national publicity secretary Felix Morka publicly rebutted the claim, denying systematic sidelining within the party. His version is a first-person recollection, not an official finding. Notably, in a separate recent exchange, Akande defended Buhari against a different allegation, saying the late president offered to back Osinbajo's presidential bid on several occasions, which suggests his criticism is selective rather than wholesale.

Patience as strategy: staying put until 2023

According to Akande, Tinubu refused to be pushed out of the APC and instead kept organising politically. "He just waited. He bided his time," Akande said in one account of the interview. Tinubu, widely credited with helping Buhari emerge as the APC candidate and win in 2015, ultimately succeeded Buhari after winning the 2023 general election. Akande framed the patience as a lesson for today's opposition: endure pressure and organise your way back to the top.

The 2027 pivot: a direct challenge to Atiku

Akande turned the history into an argument about the 2027 general election, urging former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to sacrifice his personal ambition for opposition unity. "I think it is ego. So, the person that ought to make the move here is Atiku," he said. "Atiku is one that was supposed to say, 'You know what? We are going to make sure that we get this guy out, and I'm going to sacrifice.'" He argued the opposition should have accommodated figures such as Chibuike Amaechi and kept Peter Obi from leaving.

Rotation and the northern question divide the opposition

Akande rejected the idea that the North should automatically reclaim power, calling it an insult to national belonging, and insisted on maintaining a rotational presidency. He described the North-is-angry narrative associated with Atiku's camp as divisive. The remarks land in a fractured opposition landscape where no single challenger to the APC has yet consolidated support ahead of 2027.

Responses and coalition moves still to come

The next signals to watch are whether Atiku responds to the call to step aside, whether Obi, Amaechi, or other opposition figures react, and whether anyone from the Buhari-era inner circle disputes the details. Until more participants speak on the record, the 2015-to-2023 power dynamics inside the ruling alliance remain a contested memory rather than a settled account.