L-R: Adebayo shittu and Omoyole Sowore
The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu and the Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Mr. Omoyele Sowore were caught up in a radio studio over the 2019 general elections state of the nation and the argument turned into a shouting bout with the minister telling Sowore “you are talking rubbish”.
The programme called “Political Circuit” aired on Fresh FM in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
Recall that Sowore recently stirred Nigeria’s political waters when he declared he would contest the 2019 election because “Buhari has failed the nation” while the Minister, a staunch loyalist of Buhari, wants to become the governor of Oyo State in 2019. The following dialogue ensued when both combatants met at the studio.
Sowore: “Minister, it is great to see you. This is the minister of an outgoing regime; the Buhari regime will be kicked off power by 2019″.
Minister: “You are a dreamer. By your wish or by God’s wish? You are just dreaming. You are a day dreamer”.
Sowore:“By the wish of the people of Nigeria, Sir. It is not a dream. It is the realisation you’d wake up to on February 15.”
Minister: “Sowore, what is your electoral worth? Whether in your Ife, home or any part of this country.”
Sowore: “My electoral worth brought you to power in 2015. Nobody even heard about many of you in 2014.”
Minister: “You are inconsequential. That’s rubbish. I have been in politics since you were born. For forty years, I have been in politics and I was already a lawyer before I joined politics forty years ago. You can’t be here and talk rubbish. This is rubbish! You want to become president? You are a day dreamer. Who will make you president? You will be president of your Ife… not Nigeria. Go and be president in Ife. You think it is cheap as that? We will see.
Sowore: “I am consequential because you came to power on my back, on our back… on the back of young people who invested a lot of hope.”
Minister: “What did you invest? Did you invest more than me, No? I will not sit here and allow someone make noise…You are just a noisemaker. You are just a noisemaker.”
Sowore: “This was the same way Jonathan people were sounding in 2014… you are goner, you’ll be shocked in 2019, the Nigeria of the future is for dreamers like me.”
Minister: “You think the Presidency is for people like you? Go and start from being a councillor. I have been a member of the House of Assembly, I was a commissioner twice, I was already a lawyer… you wouldn’t know, you were too small. How old are you? How old are you? This is not a platform for minions like you to come… you think the presidency is something you can just buy in a market place? You are a giant in university politics (and) by the grace of God you will be put to shame.”
