ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Tuesday took a swipe at the younger
generation of Nigerian leaders, saying they had poor performance record
in terms of integrity and probity.
He passed the damning verdict while
responding to questions on issues bordering on poor leadership in
Africa at the 4th Annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit organised
by the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan, in
collaboration with African Sustainable Development Network.
The former President, who delivered
the keynote address at the summit stated that the younger
generation of leaders failed Nigerians.
He said during his administration, “We
had some people who were under 50 years in leadership positions. One of
them was James Ibori, where is he today? One of them was Alamieyesiegha,
where is he today? Lucky Igbinedion, where is he today?
“The youngest was the Speaker, Buhari,
you can still recall what happened to him. You said Bola Tinubu is your
master. What Buhari did was not anything worse than what Bola Tinubu
did.
“We got some of them impeached. But in
this part of the world, some people covered up the other man. The man
claimed he went to Government College, Ibadan but the governor (Oyo
State) went to Government College and packed all the documents so that
they would not know that he did not go there.
“I wanted someone who would succeed me
so I took Atiku. Within a year, I started seeing the type of man Atiku
was. And you want me to get him there?
“I once went to Tanzania because Julius
Nyerere recognised Biafra. He told me not to mind his aides and others
in government. They would say they have one house in town but their
five-year-old sons and daughters would have houses all over.’’
Abubakar served as Obasanjo’s deputy
between 1999 and 2007 but the two fell out when the issue of third term
became public knowledge.It was believed that the former President
viewed Abubakar as the unseen hand behind the opposition against his
bid to remain in office after his second term tenure.
Tinubu, a founding member of the All
Progressives Congress, had a running battle with the former President
who seized the allocations of the Local Governments in the state for
many months. The matter ended in the Supreme Court which ruled in favour
of the Tinubu administration.
Before the incident, there were
controversies on whether or not the former governor actually attended
the Chicago State University in the United States which he had said was
his Alma Mater.
Buhari’s had claimed that he
attended the Toronto University in Canada, a claim that was found out
to be false. For this, he was sacked as the Speaker of the House of
Representatives.
Ibori, Alamieyeseigha and Igbinedion
were hounded for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission during Obasanjo’s tenure. Although Ibori was lucky to have
escaped imprisonment in Nigeria, Igbinedion and Alamieyeseigha were not
as lucky as they ended up being convicted.
The long arm of the law however
caught up with Ibori in far away London where he was tried and jailed.
He is currently serving his jail term in the UK.
Obasanjo told the audience at the summit
that Nigerians must begin to realise that there could never be a good
leadership without good following.
Wondering if Nigeria was jinxed or
cursed, he said it was regrettable that the country had not produced a
commendable leader after 53 years of independence.
He said, “Some of you who are condemning
those in leadership positions would get there tomorrow and it would
be a different story. Only very few are actually good.
“Gen Sani Abacha (now late), my
predecessor got $750m. Through our lawyer in Switzerland we recovered
$1.25bn and the lawyer still said there is probably another $1bn to be
recovered. In 1979 we had 20 new ships specially built for Nigeria. When
I came back 20 years after, the national shipping line had been
liquidated.
“The whole thing is not just about
leadership. If we talk about good leadership, you should also talk about
good followers. If you talk about human rights, you should also talk
about human duties and obligations.
“It is sad that after 53 years of
independence we have no leader that we can commend. Then we are jinxed
and cursed; we should all go to hell. The problem in Africa is that when
one person takes over he would not see any good thing that his
predecessor did. Let us condemn but with caution”.
The former president said the topic for
the summit, “Leadership in Africa’s quest for sustainable development”,
came at a time when humanity as a whole was in search of innovative
ways of managing globally shared challenges.
The Vice-Chancellor, UI, Prof. Isaac
Adewole, said, “We have not raised questions about the scenario where
35 people(governors) found it difficult to conduct a credible election
in this country. I then have concern about how 2015 elections would be”.
A discussant from Institute of
Sustainability and Peace, United Nations University, Tokyo, Dr.
Obijiofor Aginam, said, “Unemployment is a bomb that has exploded and
manifested itself in hunger, violent attacks, crimes and killings.
Another discussant, Prof. Mojeed Alabi,
said, “The task of leadership in Africa has been quite challenging.
Africans have been so unfortunate. The question is whether our leaders
wanted development or power.”
Abubakar, however, was not combative in his response to Obasanjo’s comment about him.
He said from the way the former
President spoke, it was clear that he initially did not know him to be a
“fighter for democracy and defender of the Nigerian constitution.”
Atiku, who spoke through his
spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, said , “Yes, ex-President Obasanjo
is right. He didn’t know Abubakar well. It was later he got to know him
as a fighter for democracy and defender of the constitution.”
source: punch
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