Stop Your Holier Than Thou Posture, Fayose Advises OBJ

 

 

Stop Your Holier Than Thou Posture, Fayose Advises OBJ

By Collins U. Okobi

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Thursday, called on former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to explain  to Nigerians the source of his enormous wealth to justify his claim that he is really a ‘saint’ as he ‘fondly claimed’.

He said Obasanjo lacks moral rights to accuse anyone of corruption, “and I challenge him to explain to Nigerians the source of his stupendous wealth.

The governor, who was reacting to comment credited to Obasanjo that African leaders should ensure that treasury looters are exposed and his warning to former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and

Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, to stop mentioning his name in the controversial $1.09 billion Malabu Oil deal, said the former president should rather explain to Nigerians the source of his stupendous wealth.

 

In a statement yesterday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said it smacked of the highest level of hypocrisy for someone like Obasanjo to be sermonising about corruption, having superintended over a corrupt government himself.

 

He said the former president must come out clean on his roles in the controversial $1.09 billion Malabu Oil deal, instead of warning former Adoke to stop mentioning his name in the deal, adding that “it is on record that the out-of-court settlement on the controversial

Malabu oil block was initiated in 2006 during Obasanjo’s administration.”

 

The governor, who maintained that Obasanjo’s accusing anyone of

corruption was like “Oyenusi accusing Shina Rambo of armed robbery,”

challenged the former president to explain to Nigerians the source of

his stupendous wealth, saying: “We saw how Obasanjo was when he became

president and the magnitude of both direct and indirect investments

that he has now. Can he in all honesty tell Nigerians that he acquired

his wealth through legitimate means?”

 

Fayose said: “Even the National Assembly affirmed him (Obasanjo) as the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria, and it is on record that it was this same Obasanjo who is always claiming holier

than thou that introduced politics of ghana-must-go bags to the National Assembly.

 

“Has Obasanjo forgotten how many billions of naira was deployed to

lobby National Assembly members to support his third term agenda?”

 

“Has he forgotten so soon that it was during his tenure that sacks of

money were displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives as

bribe money given to some members to impeach the then Speaker,

Ghali N’abba?”

 

While reiterating his demand that the former president should refund

with interest, the N10 million that he was forced alongside other

governors to donate to his Presidential Library project,

Fayose said: “Somebody like Obasanjo, who used his position as

president to extort money from governors, businessmen and contractors

to build his presidential library lacked more rights to accuse anyone

of corruption.

 

“Other Nigerians who left offices as President are still relevant to their people, but can the same be said about Obasanjo? Was he useful to the Yoruba race as president and now as former president?

“The bad state that he left major roads linking the Southwest to other

zones in Nigeria, especially the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, remains a

pointer to this. Yet, he goes about postulating as if he is the only

honest Nigerians who can make things right in the country.”