Although the Asiwaju Adinni of Yorubaland, Edo and Delta, Alhaji Tunde Badmus is not a politician as he often declares, he is a friend of politicians across parties, extending attention as well as kind gestures to all of them according to their individual and party requests.
His grasp of Nigerian politics, its psychology and temperature is incredulously out of reach of even professional politicians on the strength of his access to exclusive gatherings and behind-the-closed-door meetings where sensitive public issues were debated and decided.
Despite their public hostility obviously due to their conflicting political platforms, not a few were in the dark that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Osun State Governor, Chief Bisi Akande were soul mates between 1999 and 2003 when both were in power at the federal and state levels respectively.
This veiled alliance is one of many privileged insights to which Badmus is exposed through his close proximity with top politicians and public office holders interestingly beyond his state of origin.
In his biography, ‘Man of Many Frontiers’, public presentation of which he hosted at his 80th birthday ceremony on May 9, 2026 on the campus of the Fountain University, Osogbo, the Osun State capital, Badmus unmasked sustained efforts he and a circle of politicians from Osun State made to win Obasanjo over to withdraw his support for Akande who was seeking a second term like Obasanjo in the 2003 polls.
Politicians at the meeting, where Obasanjo gave in to their prayer to throw Akande away for Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), included the late Chief Sunday Afolabi, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, Oyinlola and late the Dr Hammed Kusamotu.
“After the primary had been won, Obasanjo was firmly in support of Chief Bisi Akande as his candidate, although the latter belonged to the opposition AD. This fact is not known to many people, but that was the situation. However, with much persuasion, President Obasanjo later invited us to the Villa and asked if we were sure we could defeat Bisi Akande. We said we would. There were seven of us at that meeting,” Badmus revealed.
When the tide later turned and he had a headbutt with Oyinlola over a tractor contract, Badmus, who described the governor as a truthful person, recalled the tutorial which Obasanjo inserted into his skull to guide his subsequent relationship with corridor of power.
The chairman of the Tuns International Holdings explained that Obasanjo called and hosted a meeting where he listened to him and Oyinlola, after which he scolded him for his demonstrable naivity on the matter, saying he should have taken a walk from Oyinlola after he had helped him into the Government House in 2003.
“He (Obasanjo) cited a personal example of an architect he helped ascend the thrown in Owu who didn’t reign long before he died, and how he was accused of being the man’s problem. He said I should have stayed away.
“He stated that if the governor had wanted me to do anything, he must ask me directly; if he did not, I should leave his government alone. That was how we (Oyinlola and I) reconciled, and we have remained so to this day,” Badmus affirmed.
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