The former President, while commenting on issues of poor leadership in Africa, said the crop of young generation of leaders in the country had failed the citizenry and that the nation itself was cursed and jinxed.
He spoke at the Fourth Annual African Sustainable Development Summit, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan, in collaboration with the African Sustainable Development Network, where he delivered the keynote address.
He made specific references to his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar; the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Salisu Buhari; former Bayelsa State Governor, Deprieye Alamieyeseigha, and others as younger generation of leaders who had failed the country.
He said during his 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 Salisu 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 him 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 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, my predecessor, got $750m, through our lawyer in Switzerland, we recovered $1.25bn and the lawyer still said there was probably still 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 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.” Speaking on ‘Leadership in Africa’s quest for sustainable development,’ he said the topic came at a time when humanity as a whole was in search of innovative ways of managing globally-shared challenges. The Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Adewole said: “We have not raised any question about the scenario where 35 people found it difficult to conduct a 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.”
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