It was a bad day for some politicians, especially the younger elements, on Tuesday as former President Olusegun Obasanjo took them to the cleaners.
Obasanjo said it was wrong for Nigerians to heap the blame of bad leadership on the older generation, saying younger elements voted into office “have disappointed Nigerians”.
To him, their poor performance in public office has continued to affect the democratic growth of the country.
“They all have poor performance record in terms of integrity and probity”.
Obasanjo was in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, as the Keynote Speaker at the 4th Annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan (UI), in collaboration with the African Sustainable Development Network.
Some of those he attacked were his deputy from 1999 to 2007, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, former Governors Bola Tinubu (Lagos), James Ibori (Delta), Lucky Igbinedion (Edo) and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa).
Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan described Alamieyeseigha as his godfather.
Obasanjo while responding to issues of poor leadership in Africa, said that the crop of younger generation of leaders in the country failed the populace.
He made specific references to Abacha, Atiku, Tinubu, Buhari, Ibori and others, insisting that they were examples of younger generation of leaders who failed the country .
“During my administration as President, 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 Alamieyeseigha. Where is he today? Lucky Igbinedion, where is he today? The youngest was the Speaker, Buhari. You can still recall what happened to him”.
Pointing to reporters, he continued: “You said Bola Tinubu is your master. What Buhari did was not anything worse than what Bola Tinubu did.
“We got them impeached. But in this part of the world (South-West), some people covered up the other man. The man claimed he went to Government College, Ibadan but the governor (the late Oyo State governor, Lam Adesina) 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 is. 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.
“Some of you who are condemning the leadership would get there tomorrow and it will be a different story. Only very few are actually good.
“Abacha got $750 million. Through our lawyer in Switzerland, we recovered $1.25 billion and the lawyer still said there is probably still another $1 billion 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 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”.
On ‘Leadership in Africa’s quest for sustainable development’, the former president said the topic came at a time when humanity as a whole was in search of innovative ways of managing globally-shared challenges.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), Prof. Isaac Adewole, said: “We have not raised question about the scenario where 35 people found it difficult to conduct credible election in this country. I then have concern about how 2015 election would be”.
A discussant from the 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”.
