After receiving the heat online for allegedly supporting the ‘presidential bid’ of APC National leader, Bola Tinubu, actress Foluke Daramola-Salako’s husband, Kayode Salako has come out to defend her.
Recall that Foluke was bashed online last week after a video of her and her colleagues singing Tinubu’s praise, surfaced online, This comes following rumors of Tinubu planning to run for presidency come 2023.
The video showed some Nollywood stars, sitting around a conference table, and chanting, “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu”. In her defense, Foluke said she and her colleagues’ presence at the gathering had nothing to do with politics. She said though she’s a card carrying member of the APC, they were not there to endorse any candidate, instead they were there for a peace and unity campaign. Read here.
In an open letter to Nigerians, her husband, Kayode said Nigerians are free to hate who they hate, while he and is wife should be free to love, who they love, and be able to show it in a democracy.
He pointed out that it would be hard for them to work against the interest of Tinubu as he is a benefactor of their family. According to him,. they would rather not support any political candidate than go against Tinubu.
He also mentioned that Nigerians cannot continue to blame Bola Tinubu for the fallout of the Lekki toll gate massacre of October, 20, 2020 since he isn’t the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed forces.
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Read his letter below
FROM MY OWN SIDE ABOUT FOLUKE AND THE SOCIAL BASHING SHE’S CURRENTLY RECEIVING WITH HER INVOLVEMENT IN THE POLITICS OF THE COMING 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
Foluke Daramola Salako has been involved in politics for almost every part of her life. This is also evident in her student days at the Obafemi Awolowo university, where she started playing politics; contested election and won to become the Director of Socials in the Student Union Government of the school, during the period.
I met her as a politically inclined person 10 years ago, and she has lived with me like that ever since. We are both involved in politics, because that is what the the prevalent Nigerian system is encouraging all Nigerians to do.
We must continue to work with others politically for the purpose of contributing to the advancement of our country’s democratic process and the business of building and ideal Nigeria together.
We are in politics, because the system is encouraging everybody to get involved and participate in it.
However, Foluke hasn’t ever done PDP before or operate in any other party, but historically the ruling party in Lagos, where she is based and runs her things. That is also the same way it is with me.
Like me, her hubby, she has been a card carrying member of APC, since the first month the party has been existing in Nigeria. We both registered to work as members of the party on the same day in 2014, just because we believed it is the best political platform for all the politically inclined progressives in Nigeria.
Before APC was created, we were members of the then defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) party, which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was the founder and the leader. All our lives, we have never done PDP or any other party before. We have always worked politically on the side of anything that has to do with Bola Tinubu school of political ideology and progressive movement.
Politically, that is our own religious brand of the divide.
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So, Foluke and I, have always been on the side of what we believe is the right side of the political divide in Nigeria. We have always been on the side of the progressive political movement in the country. We have always been where Bola Tinubu progressive school of political ideology and movement have been in the country. We haven’t worked anywhere else before, since we’ve been involved in politics in Nigeria. We have always been where the intrest of Bola Tinubu political inclinations lie since 1999.
We are still involved in politics. We are still APC. And, right now, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the national leader of the party, except those Nigerians, who casitigate people for been in the party of their choices have viable alternative political platfrom for Nigerians like us.
If it is wrong to be a member of APC or PDP, can you then give us another political platfrom, existing in Nigeria right now, where, at the end of the day, we won’t go and waste our reasons for involvement, time and other material resources in the participation.
As I submit this piece, Bola Tinubu hasn’t formally come out to declare for the race of the 2023 presidential election. He is yet to do that. And, our party has not announced its presidential flag bearer still. So, those Nigerians, who are already attacking, cursing and bashing other Nigerians for who they like to associate with politically should give themselves peace. It is not yet clear to anyone, who is going to be the next president of Nigeria. Even all the political parties are not yet sure. None is sure about it!
You cannot say because you feel offended by someone, or you no longer like him or want to hear his name for your own reason, then everybody else should hate him. That is not what the tenets of democracy is all about.
In democracy, even the devil would always have die-hard supporters and the angels, or Holy spirit, serious haters!
You are free to hate who you hate, and I should be free to love, who I love, and be able to show it in democracy. We are all entitled to our choices and the reasons for those choices.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu might be a wrong candidate to you, but for my own reason, he might be the preferred choice.
Besides, you do not know the relationship Asiwaju shares with my person and my immediate family.
Foluke Daramola’s only sister and her husband work directly in Asiwaju’s system right now. That is a great impact to her family, which I also belong as an in-law. Do you now expect Foluke or me to work against such kind of a rare benefactor and the social father of her consciousness!
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It would be hard for us to do that!
The fact remains that, what would make Foluke and me to work against the political interest of Bola Tinubu, we would rather not support or work for anybody else. Except if that person is the candidate of APC, our party.
Apart from being a benefactor in our family, in 2016, when my buxom sister; social project associate and Nollywood actress, the late Moji Olaiya, died in Canada, and there was no enough money to fly her remains home for proper burial, it was Asiwaju who surprisingly came to the rescue.
Bola Tinubu did not know Moji from Adams, he only heard about that need, and he paid, even much more beyond the expectations of her family, Foluke, her buxom friend and the burial committee, who went to seek the help from him, when most other Nigerians, who were contacted did not respond favorably.
On another note, you cannot continue to blame Bola Tinubu for the fallout of the Lekki toll gate massacre of Tuesday, October 20, 2020 in Nigeria. The fact remains that, he is not the commander of the Nigerian military or that of the grand commander of the federal republic of Nigeria. Or, neither am I aware he was yet officially indicted in the report, submitted by the panel of enquiry set up by the Lagos State government to investigate the incidents of the period of the EndSARS protests.
We were all involved in the EndSARS protests; We all played our roles and we all have been condemning that massacre incidence all along. It was bad and terrible! It is condemnable and stands condemnable!
But, the fact is, Bola Tinubu is not the one commanding the army and neither is he the one, presiding over the affairs of Nigeria as her president. So, the official blame should, rather, go to the right quarters.
If anybody should be blamed, it should be the president of the country as at the time, and the chief of army staff. My point is, the soldiers wouldn’t have come to a state like Lagos for that kind of brutal operations against the citizens of the country, without an approval from the necessary military authorities and the powers that be in Aso Rock.
However, if Asiwaju decides to contest to be the president of Nigeria tomorrow, and our great party finds him good and suitable enough to fly its ticket, that is where you will see us, regardless of what anybody feels, or can say about it, because that is our party.
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We have never been anywhere else since 1999 that we have both been involved. We were AD, AC, ACN and have been APC since 2014.
Whoever our party is going to be supporting and presenting for the election, is who would be our candidate.
We are both party loyalist individuals to the core! We shall continue to be loyal to the interest of the growth, progress and survival of the party, where we play our politics.
In 2014, both of us were offered 65,000 dollars to work against the presidential candidate of our own party then, the temptation to go for the money was emotionally intense, especially for Foluke as the woman, but resolutely, I prevailed on the situation and we both rejected it. We did not accept to go for the juicy option. We both remained with the candidate of our party then, which was president Muhammadu Buhari, not because the offer of working on another side of the electoral divide was an abomination, but because that was the side of Bola Tinubu progressive movement as at the time; the way of the majority of Nigerians and the right thing to do.
By principle, we stayed where the wishes of the majority of Nigerians were in the electioneering process.
Those who went to work with PDP in our industries went, they made the big money. This we know and some of them that we had relationship with told us. However, they are some of the financially endowed people, Nigerians are celebrating and praying for today, but we stood on the side of what we believed in.
Sometimes, Foluke would ask me, what is the place and definition of morality, when those who stay with it are abandoned and constantly castigated by the society, and those who abuse and desecrate it on the alter of survival are often celebrated and worshipped.
Well, to always stand on the part of what we believe is right for Nigeria is who we are. And, we will always stand on the side of anything that we believe is good for the interest of our party; the people of Nigeria and our own conscience.
If it is about the money, Foluke should be one of the richest celebrities in the country right now. When others were porting to go and work to collect all the big money in dollars in 2014 and 2019, we remained on the side of who our party, the All Progressives Congress, said all its members should stay with and work for. That was the side of the majority of the Nigerian electorate in the election. Because that was the man, who eventually won the election.
There, we both worked. There, I worked as the National Secretary of the Buhari/Osinbajo Mandate Group, during the period. That was one of the most prominent and popular support and campaign groups for the current federal government in the election.
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I have been on the side of anything that has to do with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu all my life, and so also is Foluke Daramola Salako. That is the side of the progressive political movement in the country. That is where we have been since we have been doing politics in Nigeria.
So, Foluke has always been involved in politics. She is not only a Nollywood practitioner. She is a card carrying member of APC, the ruling party in the country. She has been one versatile and committed one like that, as well as myself, since one month the party was formed and has been running in the country.
Democracy is the game of who the majority of the citizens in a country would always want to rule their society. It is the game of ‘the minority would always have their say, but the majority, their way’. We have always worked politically on the side of that majority, and that is where you will still see us in 2023.
Foluke and I would not work against the wishes of the majority of Nigerians, when it is time to work to choose the next president in Nigeria.
And, I also believe that our great party, the All Progressives Congress, would also not make that mistake of conceeding its ticket to any candidate, who would make it to lose the election in 2023.
I can assure Nigerians, who are attacking and abusing other people right now, that Foluke and I would work with the candidate of our party, when the time comes – Any candidate whatsoever!
We won’t work where the ‘minority’ are crying wolf – attacking and bashing people, who have the right to their choices, but where the majority are going to be voting to install another president through the popular wishes, votes and aspirations of the majority in Nigeria.
Foluke and I would work with our party and it is our belief that, whoever our party would give its presidential ticket to, is who the majority of Nigerians would go with, to be the next president of Nigeria.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is not our own enemy. We can’t hate him!
Apart from being the leader of our party; a prominent and illustrious son of the Yoruba nation, he is our family benefactor!”
