President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Lagos described Chief Bisi Akande, a former interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, as a ‘‘perfect public officer,” and the sort of man or girl he may additionally favor to go into the jungle with.
Speaking at the public presentation of ‘‘My Participations,” the autobiography of Chief Bisi Akande, the President stated the creator has retained his ‘‘inflexible integrity,” in and out of public office, by no potential accepting or supplying bribes.
The President, who heaped praises on the former governor of Osun State, in a similar way described him as a decent, truthful, and best man or woman as properly as an administrator of the first order, whose management qualities made him the unanimous wish as the first Chairman of the APC.
President Buhari used the match to narrate his first assembly with Akande, his ardour for Nigeria, achievements, and disappointment as governor of Osun State as nicely as his many battles to wrest electrical energy from the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
”My first private contact with Chief Akande was, if I recall correctly, in 2006 when preliminary consultations had been coming to fruition for a grand coalition to unseat the PDP Government.
”Those efforts sooner or later came to nothing. Neither he, nor I, nor many of our friends and buddies gave up as, in Chief Akande’s words: “the usa used to be going down and down beneath PDP” (p.396 of My Participations),” he said.
The President also narrated how Akande had risen to prominence from his participation in the Constituent Assembly hooked up by the Military Government of General Olusegun Obasanjo.
”He used to be constantly in the thick of matters through the difficulties and political discontinuities of the Nineteen Eighties and 90s.
‘‘He emerged as Governor of Osun State in 1999 when the military surpassed over to the civilians.
”Chief Akande had a horrendous baptism as Governor of Osun State with discord from his very own party; his State Assembly (including an strive to impeach him barring any purpose whatsoever); from the alternate unions and from his private deputy Governor!
”On top of that, he inherited a deeply indebted Treasury, giant arrears of salary, allowances, and pensions. Enough challenges to weigh down many aspiring leaders.
”Bisi Akande stood 4 rectangular and faced all the challenges head-on and overcame most of them.
”His first action was once to cease charge of “critical allowances” a euphemism for government cash typically shared by using the huge boys in Osun State. This set the tone of his Administration,” he said.
Recounting the achievements of the former Governor of Osun State, President Buhari cited that it is on document that inside one year, Akande had paid off all the earnings and other arrears, displaying his mettle as a geared up and serious administrator.
”By 2003 Chief Akande had clearly sanitised governance in Osun State having cleared some of the troublemakers from his authorities and, even though reluctant to serve a 2nd term, he used to be persuaded to run again,” he said.
Reflecting on the political history of the author, specially his bid to are attempting to locate a 2nd time period as Governor of Osun, the President said: ”It is frequent records that Akande was as soon as the victim – alongside with other AD Governors – of a diabolical double-cross which ended his gubernatorial career. Only the steadfast Asiwaju Bola Tinubu escaped the electoral bloodbath masterminded through President Obasanjo.
”Desperately disappointed although he was, and being a correct Muslim, he preferred this setback as section of the trials of life. He looked to the future of provider to the country.”
Reminiscing on APC’s ascent to governance at the Federal stage in 2015, the President said: ”Chief Akande was once as soon as in the thick of in addition tries in 2011 and 2014 to fuse collectively special corporations and dislodge PDP from governance.
”The key to his wondering which coincides with mine is that Nigeria can only be successfully managed with the aid of alliances between important groups.
”Although we failed in 2011 but via persistence and information that PDP used to be driving the us of a in the direction of disaster, a quantity of fundamental parties were capable to in the quit coalesce into APC in 2014 .
”Chief Akande used to be unanimously chosen as the first Chairman of this gorgeous coalition. Throughout the tough negotiations, I observed Akande truthful, regular and generally with an eye to the ultimate goal.
”In or out of office, he has retained his inflexible integrity. On p.400 of his book, he wrote: ‘I by means of no ability gave to or demanded bribe from all of us all my life.’ A exceptional gentleman. A ideal public officer, he said.
Quoting a familiar Hausa saying, ”Labarin zucciya a tambayi fuska” (loosely translated – if you wish to comprehend what is in a man’s heart watch his face), the President affirmed that Akande has a everlasting smile on his face, announcing ”He is the kind I will go into the jungle with.”
On the book, the President endorsed it to students of Nigeria politics and the everyday public alike.
”This book is a historical document. Students will find this an treasured supply of Nigeria’s politics, quite between 1999 and 2020,” he said.
0 Comments