When it was Akinwonmi’s turn to speak, he first took out a few seconds to protest his introduction as a mister. “I am Elder Yemi Akinwonmi; I’m not a mister,” he said, his face contouring into a frown, before going on to add: ‘I am an elder, not a mister.”
Yemi Akinwonmi, Deputy National Chairman (South) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), caused a mild but lightning quick drama on national television on Wednesday when he delayed the take-off of his contribution because he had been introduced as a ‘mister’ rather than as an ‘elder’.
Akinwonmi was a guest on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’, alongside Bayo Oshinaga of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Abduljalil Tafawa Balewa of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).
All three were to discuss the seeming inability of the CUPP to name a consensus candidate with just a day to the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for parties to submit the names of their presidential candidates and running mates.
Balewa, the first to talk, dwelled on the qualities the CUPP was looking for in the candidate to be picked.
When it was Akinwonmi’s turn to speak, he first took out a few seconds to protest his introduction as a mister.
“I am Elder Yemi Akinwonmi; I’m not a mister,” he said, his face contouring into a frown, before going on to add: ‘I am an elder, not a mister.”
Next was Oshinaga, who did not even identify himself by any title but gave a first name different from the one displayed on the screen.
“I am Segun Oshinaga,” he said, and promptly set about discussing why CUPP would not succeed in unseating President Muhammadu Buhari despite already forming an alliance with the PDP in private while pretending in public to still be on a search for a consensus candidate.