Nigeria not been properly governed, says Olanipekun

Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) has expressed worry about the present deplorable socio-economic condition of the country, blaming the Federal Government for its rudderlessness, improper governance and undue distance of President Muhammadu Buhari from the masses.

Olanipekun said this while speaking with journalists after the inauguration of the multi-million naira Vice

Chancellor’s Lodge he built and donated to the management of the Ajayi Crowther University (ACU), Oyo‎.

Present at the event include Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, the Alaafin of Oyo Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, the Bishop of Lagos, The Most Reverend Dr. Adebola Ademowo, Emeritus Prof. Ayo Banjo, the ACU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dapo Asaju, and many other eminent personalities.

Olanipekun, ‎who described the idea of selling the nation’s asset as uncalled for, urged those angling to buy the assets to loan the Federal Government money to turn the assets around.

He said he was uncomfortable with the way President Buhari has created a wide gulf between himself and  Nigerians.

According to him, the nation is not been governed properly in line with the type of change agenda that the government sold to Nigerians before the 2015 election, stating that the President was dabbling into some affairs that were irrelevant ‎to his administration.

Said he,  “We need to plead with Mr. President that he needs to engage with Nigerians more. Me I don’t want to be hearing what the president says through the aides every time. I want to hear the President myself. And my children and grand children want to hear what the President is telling them. That was how people like us grew up. I listened to and heard the likes of Awolowo speak; I heard Akintola and others, not the tales from Femi Adesina or Shehu Garba.

“The President must engage and feel the pulse of the people. I insist again that there is too much distance and too much gap between the government and the governed. You cannot teach an old man how to use a left hand. I am not interested in any political office and I am not begging for any position, but I insist and I have a right to insist that Nigeria must be governed properly. I am saying that today, Nigeria is not being governed properly. There is rudderlessness on the part of the government both at the federal, state and local government levels. They are leaving things that they should do undone.”

He stated that the President said he would support the National Assembly to make the local governments independent of the state government, noting that the FG has no business in that as the local governments are under and belong to the state governments.

Olanipekun maintained that we are not  running a federal system but rather a hydra-headed unitarism, saying “so, why is the Federal government now saying we have a lot of items on the exclusive legislative list like tourism, fishery, agriculture etc?

What has the Federal Government got to do with that?”

“Why is the Federal Government not talking about security and to that extent, I am talking of state police, University police. Why is the Federal Government not talking about liberalising INEC and making it more independent? Why is the Federal Government not talking about building institutions more than individuals?

“What we have in Nigeria today is powerful individuals not powerful institutions. And the powerful individuals, if care is not taken, they are already becoming lions and when lions roar, they will lionlise, and you know what will happen. They will devour. And I hope those individuals who are richer than Nigeria, don’t devour us. A time will come when Nigeria will start borrowing from them to survive. A time will come”, he said.

While referring to the recent statement ‎credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Buhari should not sell the nation’s assets to cabals in the country, he said Obasanjo should mention the cabals, lamenting that successive governments and Heads of States have been held captive by powerful individuals who don’t have the interest of Nigeria at heart but are rather narrow-minded and self- centred.