Tinubu is not God

ABUJA — SENATOR Dino Melaye, yesterday,
said he was provoked by Senator Oluremi

Tinubu into a verbal altercation in the
Senate’s closed-door session of on Tuesday
and dismissed cautions from her husband,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying he was neither
God nor his political patron.
In his reaction to news reports of his use of
violent language and physical threats
against Senator Tinubu, Melaye, at a press
conference in the Senate Building, said most
of the reports were exaggerated, even as he
admitted using violent language upon her
after she allegedly called him a dog and a
thug.
How Mrs. Tinubu provoked me —Melaye
Melaye, who addressed the Senate Press
Corps upon what he claimed as media
misrepresentations on what happened in the
Tuesday closed-session, said he spoke on
his “honour as a Christian, on my honour as
a father and on the oath of my office as a
Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said: “I have never been a coward; I will
not start an apprenticeship programme now
on how to become a coward.
“Whatever I say anywhere, I can boldly
repeat everywhere. When I stood up, and I
made my submissions that day in the
Senate, all I did was to pacify my colleagues
and ask that the case in court be withdrawn
because already, there is a resolution of the
Senate that the rules of the Senate were
not forged, and since there was a resolution
of the Senate that the rules of the Senate
were not forged, I said all those who have
gone to court should go and withdraw their
names from court and that if at the end of
the day, they refused to withdraw their
names from court, we should penalise them
by suspending them. I said that.
“But I did not use any insolent, abusive,
degrading or mannerless language. So, there
was no reaction from any of our colleagues
as regards my presentation.
“After I had spoken, many other senators
spoke, and I did not mention the name of
any senator while I was making my
presentation. Unfortunately, Senator Oluremi
Tinubu got up and was recognised to speak,
and immediately she started speaking, she
specifically mentioned my name, even when
in my presentation I did not mention
anybody’s name.
“I only appealed to the sensitivity of my
colleagues and asked them to withdraw
their case from court and reminded them
that there was a resolution of the Senate
that the rules were not forged. But because
of reasons only known to Senator Oluremi
Tinubu, she got up, and the first thing she
said was that she’s being harassed in this
chamber by Senator Melaye.
“I kept quiet at that point; she went ahead
to say that why will she come here and be
threatened by senators and there was a
large chorus from senators saying ‘how,
when, where’.
“At that point, I was still very calm. She got
up again and said that this thug must be
tamed. At that point, I got up, and I told her
that she is very stupid.
She called me a dog
“The next statement from her was that you
are a dog. She called me a dog, and when
she called me a dog, I stood up, and I
reacted and told her that this is not
Bourdillon and that she should look at my
face, I am not one of those senators who
normally come to prostrate to them in
Bourdillon.
“I told her I am from Kogi State, I am not
from Lagos State and that there would
never be a day I will come to you for
political assistance. These were my words,
and she went on shouting dog, thug.
“I want to tell you, gentlemen of the press,
that for every reaction, there must be an
action. When I got up to address my
colleagues, she was not the only senator
there. If I had used insolent language or foul
languages, you know the type of senators
we have. They would have reacted, and
some of them would have even addressed
you guys by now to say Dino insulted us.
“But because she acted in the manner she
did, not one senator stood up in her defence
when I was tongue-lashing her. Even the
senators from Lagos were there. Senator
Ashafa was there; he didn’t stand up from
his seat.
“It is not true that anybody circled her
because there was no need to. I did not
leave the spot I was sitting. I didn’t get up
from my seat.”
Responding to assertions by Senator Ajayi
Boroffice, he said: “Unfortunately, this
expatriate senator, absentee senator called
Senator Borrofice was not even in the
chamber, and he has not been in the
chamber for the past two months.
“He was not in the chamber; I was
surprised, maybe, he has celestial powers to
understand what happens in his absence.
“If there are instances that I am not a super
human being, if there are instances where
as a human being, I have reacted negatively,
I am also ready to be apologetic about it.
“I never even used insolent language but
because they are yet to heal the wounds of
defeat of the election of the Senate
President and because of my key role in this
exercise, where she and her husband called
me severally to appeal to me to back off
from Saraki, and I said I would not back off
Saraki.
Tinubu is not God
“I will continue to speak for those who
cannot speak for themselves. I will continue
to be a voice for the voiceless and in
reaction, I heard that Senator Bola Ahmed
Tinubu said my political career has come to
an end. I want to say that Tinubu is not
God. I fear only the God Almighty; I fear no
soul; I only respect souls.
“So far, my political journey to the House of
Representatives and the Senate had no
political, financial or moral contribution of
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The God, who
has brought me this far, is mighty, strong
and enough to take me further. What God
has given me, no man can give, and what
God has given to me, no man can take.”
He equally dismissed claims that Senate
President Bukola Saraki nodded repeatedly
to his alleged barbs against Senator Tinubu,
saying nothing of such happened.