The pioneer Interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, will clock 85 on Tuesday.

He was the governor of Osun State from 1999 to 2003 as a member of the defunct Alliance for Democracy.

He was born in Ila Orangun on January 16, 1939, in what is now the Osun Central Senatorial District.

President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, celebrated the former governor on his birthday.

“Baba was a principal actor in the founding of our great party, the All Progressives Congress. He has always been a progressive; always noble and disciplined in thoughts and actions, and given to rational and enlightened ideals,” Tinubu extolled.

As the influential political figure marks his 85th birthday, PUNCH Online revisits some of his most controversial statements:

“Jonathan is a kindergarten leader”

He criticised President Goodluck Jonathan, stating that he believed the President was unfit to govern the nation, suggesting that the responsibilities of the presidency require more experience and competence.

Akande stated, “What the country needs is a thinking leader not a kindergarten president with no solution to the myriad of problems plaguing the nation.”

READ ALSO: Why Corruption Is Difficult To Tackle In Nigeria – Bisi Akande

Akande spoke with reporters at his Ila-Orangun country home.

He claimed that Jonathan, instead of focusing on effective government, was abusing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to go after those he saw as opponents.

This sparked a response from the then-president.

According to a statement from Dr Reuben Abati, President Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Jonathan urged Akande to show respect for the truth, his age, and Nigeria.

The President expressed disappointment at Akande’s remarks, stating that they were disrespectful to the esteemed position of the President of Nigeria.

“Nigeria may not celebrate 100 years of democracy together”

Akande issued the caution while unveiling his book, “The Bisi Akande Phenomenon: Governance, Economy and Politics.”

Akande emphasised the importance of the Federal Government prioritising an advanced educational curriculum that promotes the principles of democracy while reducing the emphasis on religion and ethnic bias.

“The Federal Government has been charged on the need for technology advanced educational curriculum as a panacea for economic and political advancement. If leaders do not uphold the tenets of democracy, the country might not celebrate 100 years of democracy together as a nation,” Akande said.

“Returning PDP to power will cause more suffering”

Onn Sunday, January 14, 2024 Akande addressed journalists in Ila Orangun, Osun State. He was speaking as part of activities to celebrate his 85th birthday anniversary.

During the event, he was asked about the opposition parties’ plan to form a coalition in order to challenge the ruling APC at the national level.

READ ALSO: I Don’t Know How To Advise Nigerians On Current Hardship – APC Leader, Bisi Akande

He said, “If the PDP was rejected and the same PDP coalesced again and people say, okay we will go back to it, the people will go back to their suffering. The PDP was defeated because it had no clue.”

“Nigeria moving in wrong direction”

During an exclusive interview with former presidential aide Laolu Akande, he made this statement on the debut of his TV programme, ‘Inside Sources’ on Channels TV in December.

When asked whether Nigeria was moving in the right direction, the former Osun State governor said, “Nigeria has been having a stunted growth, and today the sources of its nutrition are in deficit. The nutrition for a good polity is infrastructure and human capacity. Both we seem not to have in the right direction.

“So for that reason, I don’t see Nigeria in the right direction. But with the reason attempt to change the situation let’s hope Nigeria will be strong enough to bear the change.”

“Nigeria does not have a constitution now”

In the same interview, Akande noted that Nigeria’s constitution is fickle.

“We have no constitution now. What we have is the understanding. What we have now is that the Federal Government takes a decision and the rest of us queue behind it, that is why you see a market woman whose stall has been blown away by the wind, say we voted for the President (Tinubu), come and see flood (in our market) but that is a local government job and should be directed by the state governor, it has nothing to do with the Federal Government but because the constitution is not well defined, or simply defined see how long it takes, it is too long.”

“All the angels in heaven cannot make 1999 constitution work”

He described the 1999 Constitution as the greatest misadventure of the country, saying that the law cannot make the progress of Nigeria work.

Akande called for the adoption of the 1963 Republican Constitution as a means to facilitate the development of a more appropriate constitution.

“The Constitution breeds and protects corrupt practices and criminal impurities in governance. The 1999 Constitution can never be beneficially reviewed and the ongoing piecemeal adjustments or amendments can only totally blot the essence of national values and accelerate the de-amalgamation of Nigeria.

“All the angels coming from heavens cannot make that Constitution work for the progress of Nigeria. It should only be scrapped as a bad relics of military mentality; it ought to be temporarily replaced with the 1963 Republican Constitution to enable a transition to the writing of a suitable constitution.

“Otherwise, the 1999 Constitution would continue to dwarf Nigeria’s economy and stifle the country’s social structure pending a disastrous and catastrophic bankruptcy,” he stated.

READ ALSO: Throw Away 1999 Constitution, Embrace 1960’s, Akande Tells NASS

“Subsidy thieves, corrupt businessmen, enthroned Saraki, Dogara”

Back in 2015, the ex-governor pointed out that fuel subsidy thieves and corrupt businessmen were believed to be responsible for the crisis in the APC, which ultimately led to the unexpected appointments of Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representatives, going against the ruling party’s desires.

Akande had said Saraki and Dogara were backed by fuel subsidy thieves and business cartels to frustrate the anti-corruption plan of the Buhari administration.

“Those who were jittery of Buhari’s constant threat of anti-corruption’s battle began to encourage and finance rebellions against the APC democratic positions which led to the emergence of Senator Saraki as the candidate of the PDP tendencies inside and outside APC.

“Before the party knew it, the process had been hijacked by polluted interests who saw the inordinate contests as a loop-hole for stifling APC government’s efforts in its desire to fight corruption,” akande said.

“Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance, are quickly backing up the rebellion against APC with strong support,” he said in a statement.

“Godfatherism is common sense”

Akande was lending his voice to the proxy war between the then-governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai and then-APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Clearly, this was a coded allusion to el-Rufai’s remarks about putting a stop to the godfatherism that plagues Lagos politics.

El-Rufai had insisted he had no apology over his comment that “godfather can be defeated” in Lagos State.

He said, “Like most learners serve article-ship before qualifying as Accountants; and like most lawyers serve tutelage before being professionally competent, so must a university lecturer seek mentor-ship before rising to professorship.

“In the same manner, the lower the hierarchy of a political party member, the more mentorships he required to rise from mere canvasser, to ward organiser, to party officer and to election candidate within his chosen political party.

“It is these political mentor-ships that are being presently euphemistically negated as ‘godfatherism’ by the neo-money politicians struggling to use money to hijack influence from political parties whose ideology they do not care to respect.

“It is not about defending Tinubu or responding to El-Rufai’s statement about defeating godfatherism, I am defending common sense.”

“ASUU is producing vagabond, half-baked graduates”

In 2018, Akande criticised the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, calling it dishonest and destructive.

READ ALSO: Why Osinbajo Visited Tinubu – Akande

He said that the union’s members’ ceaseless strikes had played a significant role in producing low-caliber graduates who, he regretted, are vagabonds and unemployable.

He said, “Can they do that in private establishment’? It is because they are employed by the government that gives them such opportunities, if they are truly sincere about their demands, they should also come together and found university.

“People go to the university and come back with half-baked education. They are teachers of vagabonds and that is the truth. That is why Nigeria is becoming worse.”

“Buhari should have removed fuel subsidy”

Akande, a fierce supporter of Buhari when he was in power, recently expressed his reservations about some of the former President’s economic decisions.

He stated that former President Buhari could have successfully removed the subsidy during his administration.

“And I kept saying it but as part of the administration, I couldn’t go to the press to say it. It would have been senseless because Buhari never closed the door of his house to me. I can meet and talk to him whenever I want,” he said on Channels TV.

“And I was saying that I wasn’t comfortable with economic management. Let’s use, for example, the removal of fuel subsidy, between the time Buhari was elected as President and the time he was inaugurated, we had several sessions of discussion to see if the subsidy should be removed and he was convinced.

“And I thought that as soon as he got to power he would removed the subsidy but I didn’t know what happened. And after his inauguration he started being careful, slowing down until the first four years,” he added.

As we reflect on Akande’s controversial statements, it’s important to acknowledge the impact he has had on the political landscape.

As he celebrates his 85th birthday, we wish Mr. No-Nonsense Gov continued health and happiness.
PUNCH