Lawmakers ‘unarmed’ robbers -Obasanjo

Lawmakers ‘unarmed’ robbers -Obasanjo

• Says today’s youth not ready for leadership

From Iheanacho Nwosu, Abuja and Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described members of the two chambers of the country’s National Assembly as a ‘bunch of unarmed robbers’ based on their bogus allowances and salaries.

He made the disclosure at a public presentation of a book written by Prof Mark Nwagwu, entitled “I am Kagara, I weave the sands of Sahara”, held at University of Ibadan.

Obasanjo, who was the chief host on the occasion, also urged the Federal Government to respect the agreements it signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) because the government allowed itself to be stampeded into signing the agreements without full consultation within government. He said 90 percent of the nation’s revenue is used to pay overhead, allowances, salaries while not much is left for capital development.

He said: “It is even worse for the National Assembly. They will abuse me again, but I will never stop talking about them. They are a bunch of unarmed robbers.”

“They are one of the highest paid in the world where we have 75 percent of our people living in abject poverty. They will abuse me tomorrow and if they don’t, maybe they are sleeping. The behaviour and character of the National Assembly should be roundly condemned.”

He regretted that government allows itself to be stampeded into signing agreement, particularly, when one group or the other withdraws their service and goes on strike.

“But an agreement is an agreement; whoever the agent is that signed that agreement on your behalf, you are bound by it. You may now have to renegotiate to have a new agreement, but the agreement earlier signed remains an agreement.”

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, who was the chairperson on the occasion, who called for positive attitudinal changes for national development, described the book as a tool for the country to examine the extent to which it had lost her values and culture.

Meanwhile, the former president has said today’s youths lack leadership qualities and prefer to wait for what he called ‘dead men’s shoes’. “Most members of the younger generation of Nigerians are mostly contented with waiting for dead men’s shoes and are unwilling to beat an alternative path to leadership,” he declared.

Obasanjo stated this in a letter to former president of Nigerian Bar  Association (NBA), Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN). The letter was a reply to the one earlier written to him by Agbakoba on July 20, 2017. The latter had told the former president that Nigeria needs a generational shift in political leadership 

He argued that even the younger generation who had been trusted with political power  in recent times did not only fail to live up to expectation, but left imprint of disappointments.

The former president’s claims run counter with his admonition to the youth, last week, to quickly wrest power from the older generation.  He said the youths clear display of lack of preparedness to take over power has made older generation to hold on tight to power.

Obasanjo said: “In such a situation, it is to be expected and actually human that those with some head start in life will not concede such advantages freely and based on their innate goodness. The world, as I know it, is powered by shrewd hard-headed calculating individuals, and the cornucopia of their mercy ids decidedly thin; and it is unlike God’s rain that falls on the just and the wicked alike.

“The point to ponder is how have the successor generation positioned themselves to lead? I look back at some members of the younger generation and I am miffed at the missed opportunities. I am equally saddened  that although we, the so-called older generation, did facilitate some semblance of infrastructure development, today, the gains made have been mostly pushed down the drain by some of those privileged young people saddled with similar responsibilities in the recent past. “         He continued: “You should know that some of these same young people, whose interest we canvass, have in the recent past been a complete disappointment and failures in their various appointed or elected positions. 

“Some of these young people in public or private sector have frittered the prospect of being at the vanguard of sustainable development of what some of us, the earlier generation of leaders, pioneered on the altar of their crass materialism, self-centredness and opportunism.”

He insisted that older generation who still have good things to offer the nation should not be excluded from leadership on the basis of the sentiment that youths should be handed power. 

He said: “So, while these failed young men and women should not be a disincentive to support other young people, I don’t think that the older people should be excluded in our leadership recruitment process. For me, if I find men and women who have shown profound commitment and exemplary integrity in their various chosen careers or professions as well as zeal for the service of our fatherland, I will, of course, give such both my support and inspiration, notwithstanding their age, circumstances or place of birth.”

Obasanjo challenged Agbakoba to seek political leadership to help provide the desired leadership the nation needs . 

He said: “I ask you, dear Olisa, you are at a point where you should step forward and develop a mobilization framework that seeks to rearrange Nigeria on a different basis of legitimacy. Late Chief Awolowo and the great Zik were younger than you when they threw their hats in the ring. It is time to take the hard road. Olisa, it is time to jump down from the fence and the siddon look corner.”