How Obasanjo, IBB, Ruined Nigeria, By Jakande
By: Kamal Tayo Oropo
Former Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, has accused two of Nigeria's past military leaders of destroying the political and social foundations of the country. Jakande indicted President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was military Head of State between 1976 and 1979, of encouraging mediocrity and knocked General Ibrahim Babangida, military President between 1987 to 1993, for ruining public morality, and destroying political party discipline.
Alhaji Jakande in a chat with The Guardian on his 75th birthday, said: "It is a pity that Nigeria has been done a great harm by two military leaders. The harm they have done will take a long time to cure. One of them is my very good friend, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. He succeeded in destroying public morality and party discipline. Before his political re-engineering, we had political parties and everybody knew his or her weight and level in the party. Babangida destroyed that. He came up with this, 'no leader, no founder, everybody is a joiner thing".
He castigated Obasanjo for his role and public statement during the run-up to the 1979 elections, in which his (Jakande) mentor and leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was presidential aspirant of the now defunct Unity Party of Nigeria. His words: "Then we have the role President Olusegun Obasanjo played in 1979 elections as the military Head of State handing over to the civilians, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo contested for the President of the country. Obasanjo made a public statement that 'the best needs not to win'. The message was very clear. The result: we lost the chance of Awolowo governing the country. No wonder Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had cause to lament that he (Awolowo) was the best President Nigeria never had".
Jakande insisted that: "Between them they should take responsibility for the agonies this country has gone through; and we are yet out of the woods".
He also decried the action of the Federal Government regarding its decision to withhold council allocations. "These are some of the areas where federal government has exceeded its power," he said. "The money for the running of local councils is not the federal government's money; the money belongs to everybody. The issue is very simple. If a state has need for only two local councils, fine, money due to it statutorily should be allocated to it, not on the basis of the numbers of local councils. And if a state desires 100 local councils, how to share the money should be the state's problem."
Jakande frowns at the 'over-burdening' of the Supreme Court with what he described as simple cases. "They are indeed simple cases, which the judiciary should not be bothered with. The issue at stake to me is so simple. Just like the case of the state of emergency declared in Plateau State. I don't think the problem calls for the so-called suspension of the state governor. What President Obasanjo should have simply done is to send about 5, 000 mobile policemen to Yelwa. It has nothing to do with the governor."
On the lingering crisis between the Federal Government and Lagos State Government over the management of federal toads and highways located in the state, Jakande declared that: "If it were not painful, it is laughable. We are making ourselves laughing object not only to ourselves but also in the eyes of the international community. I am ashamed of it. We all should be ashamed of it".
