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Ayo Opadokun, a former secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), and the convener of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), has expressed disappointment over the style of leadership adopted by President Muhammadu Buhari since his inauguration in 2015.
Opadokun, who said he spent his resources and energy to mobilise for votes toward the success of President Buhari during the 2015 election, said he did so on the basis of what he thought he knew of the Katsina State-born leader.
Speaking exclusively with BDSUNDAY in Lagos, the journalist-turned lawyer said: “The major reason why I worked and mobilised people in 2015 to vote for Buhari was on the basis of what I thought I knew of him as a military head of state, as discipline man. And when it was for change, to fight corruption before corruption kill us, I devoted all that God has given to me to mobilise nationwide to vote for him.”
Although Opadokun believes that the administration has done fairly well in its fight against corruption, he however, said: “There are unfortunate developments that put a stain on his fight against corruption. I refuse to accept this idea of selective prosecution. I am confounded about developments in his government.
“He cannot defend what happened in the case of Babachir Lawal; there’s no defence and even up till now President Buhari and his presidency cannot respond to how Maina of the Pension scheme found himself in office as director, to the extent that his own attorney general went to meet Maina in Dubai. That spoke volume of the rot in the government, and that was impactful.
“Then I became extremely worried, disturbed and disappointed when President Buhari sent the name of Magu to the Senate to be confirmed as chairman of the EFCC, another arm of the presidency called DSS, sent a ridiculous, false statement against Magu to the Senate that was looking for a way to hang Magu, and up till today Magu has been left there being mocked. That suggested quite frankly that the President Buhari that we knew has not been in charge of the presidency again. He is presiding over a divided presidency. And quite a number of other things have been happening that cannot be explained.”
Accusing the President of running an ethnic agenda and pursuing a sectarian course, Opadokun said: “Come to think of it, I never imagined that it will come in my life time that the Nigerian security and intelligence will fail abysmally and will pretentiously not to be able to deter herdsmen from killing and exterminating communities from their land and taking over their land and the Nigerian state has failed to be able stop it and stamp it out completely inspire of the loud promises made by President Buhari. I even wonder why the Nigerian presidency has led itself to be so distrusted when his own minister of defence, his own interior (internal affairs) and the Inspector-General of Police claimed that the events in Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa and Adamawa were communal clashes. Ordinarily, if there is sense of justice, equity and fairness; in this age, if there was nothing behind it; if there was nothing more to it; if there were no personal interests residing in the Nigerian security and intelligence and the presidency, all those ones ought to have been retired immediately to assure Nigerians that we are still together.
“But come to think of it how will that happen when you have a Nigerian security council where the president who presides over is from Katsina; the director of state security is from Katsina, and you also now have the newly appointed director-general of Nigeria Intelligence Agency also from Katsina. With all these how can other people from other parts of the country be assured that they are safe?”
Zebulon Agomuo
