A heated exchange ensued on TV after the Director-General of Bola Tinubu Support Management Council, Abdulmumin Jibrin was asked about his principal’s age and how he amassed his wealth.
Arise TV journalist, Oseni Rufai, who asked the question, stated that last he checked “Tinubu was an accountant at Mobil”.
He further asked how the former Governor of Lagos could amass so much wealth that “he could afford a bullion van” prior to an election at his home.
Responding to the question, Jibrin stated that emphasis should be on what Tinubu has achieved, how he turned around the revenue of Lagos and infrastructural development.
Again, he was asked “how did Bola Tinubu make so much money that he had a bullion van in his home on election day. And how old is he?”
Mr Jibrin in his response said:
“When you continue to repeat the question, you will get the same answer. These are all trash from the internet that people put together and we will not elevate such conversation.
“But when the campaign commences, we will bring out facts and figures before Nigerians but we will not create a narrative for them.”
When he was asked again, he questioned the journalist’s professionalism while asking the interviewer to “tolerate his response.” “I responded, if you don’t like the way I responded to it, you move on,” he said.
Mr Jibrin had earlier during the interview said being a good leader is not a function of age. He said:
“You can be a young man and be a bad leader, a young man well educated and be a bad leader and you can be an old man of 70 years even above and be a very good leader…The most important thing is capacity and competence.”
On the eve of the 2019 general elections, viral pictures on social media showed two bullion vans driving into Mr Tinubu’s residence.
Tinubu later admitted the bullion vans were conveying money to his house, but defended his action, saying he did nothing wrong because he was not a government official.
