The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has revealed that APC national leader, Bola Tinubu begged him in 2015 to step down for majority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila.

According to a report by TheCable, Dogara made the revelation in his biography, ‘A Reed Made Flint,’ written by one-time presidential candidate, Dele Momodu.

The book, which according to the report is due for public presentation on December 26, 2017 to mark the 50th birthday of the speaker, detailed how Tinubu, who wanted Femi Gbajabiamila on the Speaker seat, begged him to curb his ambition.

Dogara recounted: “As a matter of fact, Asiwaju (Tinubu) is someone that we respect very much and no one can doubt the sterling role he played in the emergence of APC as a government. Asiwaju had through emissaries sought audience with me and in deference to him I went to see him along with a colleague, then Right Honourable Kawu Sumaila. When we got to the Asiwaju, seasoned politician that he was, he asked us to come to his bedroom. We held this meeting in his bedroom!

He appealed to us and said what he only wanted, as a leader, as a political father, was for us to please collapse our campaign into Femi’s and declare our support for him. Asiwaju maintained that, as a matter of fact, support for Femi was a support for him. He said if we supported Femi by extension we were actually supporting him and reciprocating the work he did to ensure APC won the Presidency.

The speaker told Tinubu: “Since you have appealed to me as a father figure and I see you as a political father and as a mentor, a person we always ran to for advice really in the seventh assembly, and I still remember so many occasions I had to come here to seek assistance on behalf of others from you, I owe you the responsibility to listen to your appeal.

But I need to get back to the members who are supportive of my agenda and then to my constituents back home. We will discuss and at the end of the day I will get back to you with our decision.