Ousmane Yara opens up on Tinubu’s relationship with Guinea’s Conde — and his ‘special envoy’ status

Ousmane Yara, a Guinean ambassador to African Union (AU) for Agenda 2063, says Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect, got a special envoy status as a form of appreciation by Alpha Conde, former president of the country. 

In an interview on Sunday with Daily Sun, Yara said Conde and Tinubu became friends in 2015 after a dinner hosted in Lagos in honour of the former who was seeking support for his reelection bid.

According to Yara, Tinubu flew to Guinea on the invitation of Conde, in the company of some Nigerian businessmen and economic experts “who took time to discuss with Guinean government officials how the country could better harness its resources for economic prosperity and development”.

During Tinubu’s visit, which coincided with Guninea’s independence day celebration, the former governor of Lagos was required to fly from the country’s capital in a helicopter to Mamu, where that year’s event was held.

“Through one of Tinubu’s aides at that time, who is now a minister in the government of Nigeria, I facilitated a meeting between President Conde and Tinubu. President Conde was going for reelection, for the second term, in office then in 2015. He came to Nigeria to see Tinubu, who organised a dinner in his honour. At the dinner, Tinubu invited many Nigerian businessmen and others,” Daily Sun quoted Yara as saying. 

“President Conde then invited Tinubu to Guinea about one month to the election for his second term. Tinubu honoured the invitation and came with a team of economic experts and businessmen, who took time to discuss with Guinean government officials how the country could better harness its resources for economic prosperity and development.

“Tinubu spent only one day and travelled to London from there, but left the team he came with to continue engagement with Guinean officials on how to transform Guinea. The team and Guinean government officials worked for three days, and came up with an economic roadmap.”

Earlier before Yara’s interview with Daily Sun, a video of Tinubu, Yara and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos governor, in an aircraft belonging to the Guinean government was making rounds on the internet. 

During the interview,  Yara put a video call through to Conde to affirm his statements. 

Via the call, Conde, who described Tinubu as the biggest pan-Africanist, said he had sighted the president-elect’s accomplishments since when he was governing Lagos. 

“Tinubu is the biggest pan-Africanist I have seen. Before I met Tinubu, I had noted his accomplishments, right from when he was governor. I see him as a ‘Lion of Africa’ because of his contributions towards the stability and development of Africa. He has always supported African presidents who were pan-Africanists in disposition and others,” Conde told Daily Sun.

Conde confirmed that he recognised Tinubu as a special envoy of Guinea while promising to speak in detail about the president-elect in due course.

“Conde recognised Tinubu as a pan-Africanist and saw him as a special envoy,” Yara said.