A former governor has said the disciplinarian attributes of Buhari is an essential character for a father who has an erring child like Nigeria, adding that Buhari is carrying out his disciplinarian duties with the dedication, love and passion which is essential in balancing the strict measures taken.
Ekiti State Governor (Left) Ayodele Fayose paying an unscheduled visit to a former governor of old Ondo State, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua
A former Governor of the old Ondo State, and a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, Evangelist Bamidele Olomilua, in this interview with Vanguard, spoke extensively on many topical and controversial issues.
Read excerpts below;
On President Buhari’s method in reining in Niger Delta militants, as against the pacifist method of former President Jonathan:
Self discipline is what can take a man to where he wants to go. Self denial and self discipline are very important in the life of individuals, and a nation should have discipline, we can’t continue like this. If PDP had continued for another five years to 10 years, we would have been in trouble, there may have been no country anymore.
So there comes a time when people must stand up and say, who are mine, where am I and how far am I going? Buhari is a man who is well known for his disciplinarian pattern of life and he wants to apply it to governance. He has the boldness and self discipline to say let us discipline this nation.
So, must we be so afraid of those who break pipes, so that there can be stability? Do you bring stability by breaking all those things that the nation spent so much money on? I don’t think so. Discipline is necessary in the life everybody. Chief Awolowo said two things affected his life, the grace of God and self discipline, if you don’t discipline yourself and your government, you would be afraid.
Look at the way we bring our children up, some children are pampered, they can’t face life or their own reality. It is better we face the situation squarely and it will reach a point where people would accept the fact that some people are in charge. I think that even the bible, says spare the rod and spoil the child, we need discipline.
On PDP’s allegation that the anti-graft war is selective and an attempt to muzzle the opposition:
I don’t think so. Discipline is discipline. Even when the PDP is complaining that the President is going after their chieftains and defying court orders to keep them behind bars? But the PDP chieftain put their hands into the cooky jars of the nation. We would all become wretched if we distribute it just as we like. $2.1 billion was distributed to people when Boko Haram was having a field day slaughtering our people.
The situation was so bad, no discipline, no purposeful pursuit of goals, everybody got what he wanted, they were all struggling to get the bigger pie and Boko Haram was making mince meat of our soldiers, just because the money meant for the purchase of weapons disappeared into some peoples pocket. There is so much revealed and disgraceful, now we cannot abuse anybody who says order must be restored. I think this is what Buhari is doing to restore order.
On claims that the APC was not prepared for governance:
The formation of APC is a landmark in the political development of this nation, the party was made up of all Nigerians from every part of the country. In those days, principally in the West, we were Action Group, we couldn’t get votes from certain states in the north. Things are changing, you may not know it. They are changing so fast here, they are going to reduce the number of beggars in the streets in the north, so that every child would have opportunity, that is progress. They all have the opportunity now, to be who God wants them to be, when they are exposed to education and they have a right to it. Progressiveness means people moving forward to a higher ground to have a better view of situation.
That is a progressive movement. But when you say conservative, we are here, my grandfather was the Emir of this village, only my children can have access to land, only my children can do things here. Some of my classmates I met at the University of Ibadan were either sons of emirs or prominent persons. When you go to England, you would find them in the same situation. So they didn’t want a change but now the progressives have come together. It is a landmark achievement, the people are able to come together, you may say that they are not as fast as they ought to be in taking decisions. We thank God that he has made these progressive to come together so that this nation can move forward.
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