A former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, has made peace with his political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.Sources close to the two politicians told The Eagle Online that Obanikoro began the peace moves with a visit to Tinubu in his Lagos home about two months ago.
Obanikoro, the Commissioner for Home Affairs during the regime of Tinubu as governor of Lagos State, was said to have told Tinubu during the visit that he was returning to his “source”.
Obanikoro and Tinubu were both of the Alliance for Democracy before they fell out over the governorship seat of Lagos State.
Obanikoro and others who were of the Tinubu political school, including Jimi Agbaje, were aggrieved that the then outgoing governor did not provide a level playing ground during the primaries but unilaterally chose his then Chief of State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, as his successor.
Following that, Obanikoro left for the PDP, resulting in a bitter feud between him and Tinubu.
This was more especially so when Obanikoro was appointed as Minister by the regime of former President Goodluck jonathan.
Obanikoro led the political campaign of the PDP for the 2015 election in the South West, which the All Progressives Congress won at the federal level.
Tinubu by then had become a National Leader of the APC, which was formed from a fusion of several political parties, including the Action Congress of Nigeria, to which the AD had transformed.
Sources privy to the meeting between Tinubu and Obanikoro two months ago told The Eagle Online that the former Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government said he had retraced his steps and is “back home now”.
They have met a few times after that, it was learnt.
Between then and now, Obanikoro was said to have been spotted at several functions involving chieftains of the APC and the party itself.
The last of such functions was said to be the burial programmes of a former Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Farouk Adegboyega Oshodi.
Sources said Obanikoro will soon officially decamp to the APC.
