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May 6, 2023 11:45 PM
The former Lagos Deputy Governor had earlier said the process to renounce her Nigerian citizenship was ongoing following the emergence of Tinubu as the President-elect.
A former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, has walked back her earlier pronouncement that she would renounce her Nigerian citizenship if the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was sworn in on May 29, 2023.
Sinatu, who occupied the deputy governor’s office during Governor Michael Otedola’s short-lived reign between 1992 to 1993, had considered renouncing her citizenship before Tinubu was declared winner of the presidential election on March 1, 2023.
Explaining the reason behind her decision, Sinatu said she feels threatened by the current situation because Tinubu is allegedly not at peace with her.
“I will not hold a Nigerian passport with Bola Tinubu as President. I am praying to God to give me the nation I can go to. I am not going to America or the United Kingdom. I want a simple place where I (can) stay and live for the rest of my life,” she told journalists back in April.
However, the former deputy governor has now made a U-turn by saying that it’s not necessary to leave the country despite the imminent inauguration of the president-elect.
She disclosed this in an interview with The Punch in which she also provided details of her running dispute with the former Lagos State governor.
“All my life, I have avoided everything unethical. I have avoided situations that will put me in a position where I cannot explain myself. I have no personal issues with him (Tinubu).
He misunderstood my presence at a courtesy call by former President Olusegun Obasanjo when I was in the Federal Character Commission and decided to strike. He struck and took my land. I was in a different political party anyway so we were not friends,” Sinatu recalled how the rift between her and Tinubu started.
Asked whether the decision to renounce her citizenship was based on fear of what the president-elect can do after he is sworn in, the former deputy governor said she became apprehensive after the people she asked to prevail on Tinubu gave her feedback.
“No. All along, even though I did not shout about it when I met friends close to him (Tinubu) and quietly told them to talk to him to let the governor pay my entitlement, they promised to look into it but I didn’t hear from them, but one of them said, “Just take care of yourself, that is all am going to say. Just be careful.” I asked why and he replied, “This your situation with this guy, I don’t understand it. When I mentioned it to him, he asked me, ‘Is she still around?’” That’s a bit too heavy.
“I now came out and said, I would renounce Nigerian citizenship if this man becomes the President. When they said he was the President-elect, I said it was time to renounce (my citizenship). If it is not a threat to my life, I will still suffer because I know that everything that has a beginning must have an end, but it should not end with my life,” She told The Punch.
Speaking on how she was convinced to drop the plan, Sinatu said she changed her mind after a Muslim scholar pointed it to her that she has misread the Quran on the subject.
“Renouncing now is another problem because a Muslim scholar told me that I misread the Quran. He asked me whether Prophet Mohammed (SAW) renounced his affiliation with Mecca despite the death threat he got. So, I cannot reject Nigeria.”
Speaking further the former deputy governor said, “I had already taken a step about the country whose citizenship I will take but I was advised by people not to contemplate going anywhere and these are people whose pieces of advice I cannot reject.”
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