Buhari is a stubborn president who wants to rule us by force — Adebanjo

President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as replacement to late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, is still generating controversy especially the connection between the name 'Agboola' and the Yoruba race.

Former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has since voiced his opposition to the choice of Gambari saying if history is anything to go by, then Nigerians who think Kyari was a devil, should brace for something much worse.


He said, "Unlike his predecessor in office the late Abba Kyari who was a Shuwa Arab, Gambari is a Fulani. His only interest throughout his distinguished career as a career diplomat was to do nothing but further and protect the interest and hegemonic agenda of the Caliphate in Nigeria and to justify and rationalise its greed, brutality, barbarity and excesses before the civilised world in various international fora.

"Abba Kyari has gone. A hardline Islamic fundamentalist and Fulani irredentist has now taken over his job. Nigerians will see the difference."


Similar concern was raised by Pa Ayo Adebanjo who is an Elder Statesman and Chieftain of Yoruba Socio-cultural group, Afenifere.

Adebanjo while speaking in an interview with Daily Sun, on the state of the nation, seem irritated by claims linking Gambari to the Yoruba people simply because he bears the name 'Agboola'.

In response to a question that Buhari was fair to the Yoruba by appointing Gambari as his chief of staff, Adebanjo said, "That is how people are deceived. Is Gambari a Northerner or a Yoruba? Have you not read of what people are writing about him?" he questioned.



Speaking further on the name 'Agboola', he said, "You follow what people have been writing about him, you follow; but don’t bring that thing again. Those are the inheritance of Afonja, the Yoruba man who sold Yoruba land to the Fulani people, and they are the people now ruling Ilorin; Is Ilorin not a Yoruba town where you have an emir? Don’t let us go into that at all.

"The president has chosen that one because they are in the same category of oligarchy, of boosting domination. All the people who are from the West and from Ilorin claim to be northerners in other to gain promotion, and they put Agboola there to deceive us.


"Throughout his school career, he wasn’t known as Agboola, and he can’t speak Hausa. Have you read about his story during Abacha regime, where he supported the kiIIing of Ken Saro-Wiwa?

"He appoints people who are in the same school of thought with him. Those of us who know all these things, you hurt us when you begin to talk like this as if we don’t know. Until we restructure the country, we can’t make any progress because the man at the head is stubborn; he wants to rule us by force," he added.