By Ahmed Idris
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday that his erstwhile second-in-command, late Tunde Idiagbon, was a rare example of loyalty in service.
The President said this in Abuja when he received All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants and members of the party from the three senatorial zones of Kwara state at the State House in Abuja.
“The late Major General Tunde Idiagbon was a very rare example of what loyalty to fatherland and to a superior should be. Tunde was strong, loyal and extremely committed to the cause of positively changing the narrative about Nigeria, which the administration set out to do at that time,” he said.
The President recalled how his former deputy, who, while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia when the administration was overthrown in 1985, insisted on returning to the country despite the political uncertainty especially as he had learnt that he, as Commander-in-Chief at that time, had not been killed in the take-over.
The President said the late Idiagbon rejected the offer from the King of Saudi Arabia to bring members of his (Idiagbon) family from Nigeria to the Kingdom, as he was his guest at that time, and eventually returned to Nigeria to suffer arrest like he (Buhari) did.
He enjoined Nigerians to remain faithful and loyal to the country in all their dealings. “You don’t have to be in uniform to be loyal. What I said long ago in 1984 is still valid today.
We have no other country but Nigeria. Others who feel they have another country may choose to go. We will stay here and salvage it together,” he said.
The President thanked the APC stakeholders for the position they have taken to continue to support the party regardless of the outcome of the primaries and assured them that, with the unity displayed so far, APC will form the government in Kwara State after the 2019 elections.
