Ousmane Yara, an African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 Ambassador, revealed on Sunday how Nigerian President-elect Bola Tinubu became a Guinean citizen.
In an interview with Daily Sun in a high-end Abuja hotel on Sunday, Yara also discussed Tinubu’s relationship with former Guinean President Alpha Conde.
The Guinean, speaking about a viral video showing Tinubu and Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in a Guinean government helicopter, said the video was shot in 2016.
He claimed Tinubu had visited Guinea as a guest of former President Conde during the country’s independence anniversary celebrations at the time.
According to Yara, Tinubu, him (Yara), and Sanwo-Olu, who was not a governor at the time, were flying from Guinea’s capital to Mamu, in the country’s Fula region, to attend an independence anniversary celebration.
When Conde was in power, he used to move the state function related to the anniversary from region to region every year.
Yara revealed that the President-elect visited Guinea for the first time in 2015, following his earlier hosting of former President Conde in Lagos.
Tinubu’s presence at Guinea’s independence anniversary celebration in 2016 was his second as a guest of former President Conde, he added.
Yara said:
Through one of Tinubu’s aides at that time, who is now a minister in the government of Nigeria, I facilitated a meeting between President Conde and Tinubu. President Conde was going for reelection, for the second term, in office, then in 2015. He came to Nigeria to see Tinubu, who organised a dinner in his honour. At the dinner, Tinubu invited many Nigerian businessmen and others.
President Conde then invited Tinubu to Guinea about one month to the election for his second term. Tinubu honoured the invitation and came with a team of economic experts and businessmen, who took time to discuss with Guinean government officials how the country could better harness its resources for economic prosperity and development.
Tinubu spent only one day and travelled to London from there, but left the team he came with to continue engagement with Guinean officials on how to transform Guinea. The team and Guinean government officials worked for three days, and came up with an economic roadmap.
Yara said the ex-president was pleased with Tinubu’s support for his reelection and for bringing the team that worked with Guinea officials to chart an economic and development agenda.
The development saw ex-President Conde invite Tinubu to the independence anniversary in 2016.
Yara added;
President Conde invited Tinubu to the independence anniversary. Since the official function at every independence anniversary was done in different regions, Tinubu was required to fly from the country’s capital, in a helicopter, to Mamu, where that year’s event was held. That was the video being circulated. At the independence anniversary celebration, President Conde gave Tinubu the honour and privilege of a president, in appreciation of what he did for him during his reelection bid and towards economic development of Guinea.
Yara said President Conde, in his appreciation to Tinubu, gave him a “Special Envoy” status.
He said;
Conde recognised Tinubu as a pan-Africanist and saw him as a special envoy.
The AU Ambassador said that governments extend honorary citizenship to important people who may not be their citizens as a mark of recognition of their contributions to socio-economic and political developments in the countries, which does not make such persons citizens of the countries.
Yara said Tinubu, being a friend of Conde, is not strange as individuals and politicians all over the world have presidents as friends.
He revealed that many Nigerian politicians and businessmen were friends of Conde when he was in power, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari, who hosted the former president in Abuja.