A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has disclosed that there was no Nigerian that former President Goodluck Jonathan feared more than Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Olanipekun said this while recounting how he handled Tinubu’s case at the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, as well as another case involving Jonathan simultaneously.
Olanipekun recalled in an interview with Punch that Jonathan’s camp “believed they were contesting election against him (Tinubu), as the arrowhead of the opposition.
“One thing I also noticed was that Jonathan’s team started withdrawing from me gradually because of the Tinubu factor.
“A lady, whose name I don’t want to mention, called me one day and said ‘these people are in trouble, why are they running away from you?'”
The SAN further stated that former President Umaru Yar’Adua would have been the best president Nigeria ever had.
“He was a gentleman per excellence but was overwhelmed by his illness. He was so humble, intelligent, honest and frugal.
“He was the one who appointed me as Pro Chancellor of the University of Ibadan and he told me, Wole, I know you are going to help me revive and revamp that place.
“Thank God we did that eventually. We changed the entire face of the university.”
On war against corruption, the senior lawyer said while he prays for woe betide anybody who has looted the treasury or any person who uses position to amass wealth, President Muhammadu Buhari and his government should stop describing Nigeria as a country that is corrupt.
“If you know some judges are corrupt, deal with them, but don’t go to another country to say that the judiciary in your country is corrupt; nobody will come there because it is about investment and the rule of law.
“And when you talk of corruption among lawyers, who are the people? It takes two to tango. Let every politician in Nigeria swear by the god of thunder that he has not tried to induce a judge.
“Let the President take a cue from the United States President, Barack Obama. George W. Bush squandered American funds on the Gulf War as President of the US because he wanted Saddam Hussein by all means –dead or alive- after the September 11 attack.
“The economy of the US was comatose when Obama took over, but did you hear him say any bad thing about Bush? He had his own agenda. He started issuing presidential orders and proclamations and within two or three years, the economy was revived without him condemning anybody.
“To me, government is a continuum. I’m not in the Peoples Democratic Party or the APC; I don’t even see any difference between the two of them when it is so easy for the PDP people to move to the APC and immediately become progressives. You don’t sell that to me. Mr. President should have an inclusive government”, he added.
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