Many don’t know that renowned media mogul, a successful journalist and legendary advertising practitioner, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye is one of the loyalists of the APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But he doesn’t make a Song and Dance of it. He is one accomplished professional who has seen it all, done it all and is still very much relevant in the corridors of power.
As a staunch practitioner in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry, Ajiboye was the brain behind the famous and industry-wide renowned magazine called Nigerian Telecom News. Having organised the most prolific event in the Telecom industry called the Nigerian Telecoms Awards, Otunba Ajiboye voluntarily left the professional scene for politics in 2015 where he quickly rose to become a top chieftain and stakeholder of the ruling party, APC.
He began working with the APC directly as a member of the then President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari’s team. He started working in the office of the Chief Security Officer to the president-elect, Alhaji Abdulahi Maikano, who is now the AO to the president. At the point when the thought of a second term was hitting the political landscape, the need to begin to organise became suddenly important.
The permission of President Buhari was sought to put an umbrella body to host all the support groups that worked for APC’s success in 2015, upon securing presidential approval by Senator Abu Ibrahim, with the cooperation of Alh. Maikano, Otunba Ajiboye was seconded to run it, which was the birth of NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF BUHARI SUPPORT GROUPS (NCBSG) which had President Buhari as Grand patron and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Patron and Senator Abu Ibrahim as Chairman Board of Trustees.
Otunba Ajiboye became the National Secretary of the group. In 2018, the Council For New Nigeria Initiative was created with the sole purpose of coming up with President Buhari’s campaign policy which ultimately led to the success of President Buhari’s re-election with Bola Tinubu as patron and Senator Abu Ibrahim as the Chairman of the board of trustees.
This was the beginning of Asiwaju’s political journey to the presidency, having secured the feeling of satisfaction that the second term of Buhari was secured and guaranteed. Not resting on his oars, Ajiboye has been at the forefront of Bola Tinubu’s 2023 candidature to become Nigeria’s next president to which extent he’s been the visible media spokesman for the Tinubu campaign with stellar and eloquent appearances on Channels TV, TVC, Arise TV and others before Tiunubu emerged as APC’s flag bearer for the 2023 polls.
Ajiboye’s eloquent positioning of Tinubu is unequalled with the most profound being the appearance on Arise TV 24 hours before the Convention which came highly and widely commended. It made a good representation of the Tinubu’s campaign team at the time. Feelers in the Jagaban camp have it that Otunba Ajiboye will be one of the useful hands that Tinubu will engage to spread the dividends of democracy to Nigerians if elected in 2023 as president.
Ajiboye’s closeness to Asiwaju seems to bother a lot of people around him, as Ajiboye doesn’t have the long political relationship others have, yet Ajiboye is one of those who can enter the bedroom of Asiwaju.
Attempting to unravel the background of their closeness, one realises that Asiwaju was a Guest Speaker at Ajiboye’s Telecom Awards some 15 years ago, when Tinubu was invited to speak on Developmental Democracy at Eko Hotel with Father Kukah, who was equally a Guest Speaker.
Our investigations further revealed that Alhaji Abubarkar Rimi was a strong ally of Ajiboye and equally a political ally of Asiwaju. Furthermore, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was Asiwaju’s Chief of Staff, who is Ajiboye’s brother from Oro, in Kwara state.
Whatever it is, Ajiboye today enjoys the confidence of Tinubu, which is manifest in his numerous TV appearances.
