Obasanjo said Nigeria was probably “cursed and jinxed” since the country has for 53 years endured the misfortune of bad leaders, with none worthy of the commendation of Nigerians.
“The whole thing is not just about leadership,” he said. “If we talk about good leadership, you should also talk about good followers. If you talk about human right, 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. 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.”
He said if Nigerians were yet to commend a leader after 53 years of independence, “then we are jinxed and cursed; we should all go to hell.”
Obasanjo made the remarks in a keynote address at the 4th Annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit, organised by Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan, in collaboration with African Sustainable Development Network.
He categorised Atiku Abubakar, who worked with him for eight years, and Tinubu, as amongst the new generation of leaders who failed Nigerians because of corruption.
He also listed former governors of Bayelsa, Edo and Delta states, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Lucky Igbinedion, and James Ibori respectively, in that category.
“We had some people who were under 50 years in leadership positions,” he said. “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, (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 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 is. And you want me to get him there?”
Salisu is the former speaker of the House of Representatives who was removed from office for forging his academic certificates and claiming he attended the University of Toronto.
Alamieyeseigha was impeached and convicted for money laundering, while Igbinedion is also an ex-convict for same offense. Ibori is currently serving a jail term in UK prison for the same crime.
Obasanjo said only a little fraction of the younger generation of Nigerians criticising the current leadership, are themselves, better.
“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,” he said
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