The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State has challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to a public debate with its leader and former governor of the state, Alhaji Lam Adesina, on who was the most incorruptible, the most relevant to his immediate constituency, or even the course of democracy in Nigeria.
The party made this known in a release issued by its Publicity Secretary, Hon. Dauda Kolawole, in reply to a statement credited to the former president demanding ex-Governor Adesina’s relevance while in office.
The ACN said that the former president was daily losing credibility in a country he administered twice in his lifetime, stating that this was a symptom of the “colossal deceit” of patriotism and incorruptibility that he made the world to believe were his moral credentials.
The party said that it was challenging the former president to disprove the claim that he is one of the richest Nigerians alive, stating that he should explain how he came about his colossal wealth while pretending to the whole world that he was frugal and above board.
“The same anti-corruption institutions established by Obasanjo were gaping with astonishing complicity while the regime he headed distributed billions of our hard-earned patrimony as graft to legislators to win a third term. It is a shame that, rather than act like a statesman and admit his complicit involvement in a project that would have burnt this whole nation but for the intervention of providence, Obasanjo has shamelessly denied that he held the patent of the shameless venture.
“Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar first opened the lid of the character called Obasanjo. Through unassailable documents, he showed the whole world how corrupt the man who paraded the mantra of an incorruptible president was in purchasing cars for liaisons and cornering juicy contracts by proxy. Those allegations were never answered by our ‘incorruptible ex-president till today,” the ACN said.
While asking that Obasanjo should ask God for forgiveness for how he had deceived Nigerians and the international community thus far, the ACN said that the problems that have made Nigeria a pigmy in an international community of giants could not be divorced from the insincerity of the Obasanjo regimes (1976-1979) and (1999-2007) and his tendency to destroy even those he built.
“We challenge the former president to name an individual he built while in office who is still on the same page with him. He is like the typical Yoruba witch whom it is suicidal to do good. He takes a maniacal relish in destroying those who have done him good. Obasanjo has the proverbial character of the Greek god called Janus: His public portrayal and the person he is in his closet. There is no leadership calamity that has befallen this nation that you will not find Obasanjo’s callous imprimatur in it,” the party said.
The ACN said that it agreed with its leader, Alhaji Adesina, in his allegation that Obasanjo was complicit in the fate that has befallen the Lagos/Ibadan expressway.
“While he was president, the Yoruba nation lost in all respects, infrastructure and even socio-politics. The main roads in Yorubaland, one of which were the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, the Ibadan/Abeokuta road and several others were left undone by him. He hounded our best brains and industrialists like Mike Adenuga out of town and in spite of all these, his barren eight-year slot has become a vicarious liability for the people of Yorubaland,” the ACN said.
The party said that, comparatively, Alhaji Adesina has a huge following which is loyal to him and the party he heads, which is the ACN.
“While governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Adesina built human beings and structures in Oyo State which are still enduring till today. He is a known incorruptible man and has been living in his pre-governorship house for decades. We challenge Obasanjo to say the same of himself. We urge him to tell the whole world what happened at Transcorps and the power sector where his proxies looted our inheritance with rapacious abandon. We are persuaded that someday, and very soon too, posterity will make Obasanjo answer for all the colossal failures he inflicted on Nigeria as a leader, the fallout of which we are still battling today,” the ACN said.