Pharaoh, Let My People Go, Agbaje Tells Tinubu
Jimi Agbaje
Segun James
The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Jimi Agbaje, yesterday likened the national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), BolaTinubu, to the biblical Pharaoh of Egypt who refused to allow the children of Israel to leave but kept them in bondage until God unleashed 10 plagues on the Egyptians.
Agbaje was responding to Tinubu’s remarks last Monday, where he mocked the PDP governorship candidate for adopting the ‘freedom’ slogan for his 2019 aspiration.
Tinubu had, while addressing members of the APC supporters last Monday, said: “Those who said they want freedom should go and learn tailoring and vulcanising and we will do freedom for them later.”
But in a statement issued yesterday, Agbaje likened Tinubu to the biblical Pharaoh of Egypt who refused to allow the children of Israel to leave until the 10 plagues forced him to let them go.
“Pharaoh, you must let our people go! Apparently, the APC leader has lost touch with reality,” Agbaje said in a statement by his Director of Media and Publicity, Felix Oboagwina.
“Otherwise, he would know that, like the children of Israel, Lagosians are groaning under the taskmaster that Tinubu and his cronies have turned themselves into in this state that should rate as Nigeria’s foremost,” he added.
Agbaje noted that the biblical Pharaoh finally granted liberty to the Israelites only after several vicious plagues, adding that Lagosians would be liberated after the people might have delivered an electoral disgrace to the APC in 2019.
Agbaje said his campaign slogan mirrored the same spirit that moved Nelson Mandela to declare his long walk to freedom in an apartheid South Africa.
“We identify with our vulcanisers, tailors and all craftsmen who have the joy of duly-earned freedom after their apprenticeship.
“But it is apparent that, unlike them, those who have gotten used to filthy lucre and the dividends of corruption cannot savour the joy that comes with the legitimate sweat and labour of hardworking artisans,” Agbaje stated.
Agbaje insisted that Lagos State must be freed from the era of nepotism and corruption that saw a private firm maintaining a stranglehold on the state’s funds, against global best practices.
