Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, tackled Mike Ozekhome, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), at a programme in Abuja, on Thursday.
Wike, who was an awardee at This Nigeria Lecture and Award, said previous speakers acted as if there has been no gain for the country under democracy.
The theme of the event was “25 Years of Unbroken Democracy – Challenges, Prospects and Possibilities”.
“Ladies and gentlemen, yes I am an awardee but also a Nigerian. It will be wrong sitting here without correcting some impressions. We are talking about 25 years of democracy; we know we have challenges. I expected the lecturer to also speak of progress. But the lecture was just about criticism, nothing was said about progress. Are you telling me that no single progress was made? We can say there is progress but there’s need for improvement.
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“Just like Shehu Sanu said they were locked up and detained. But that doesn’t happen under this democracy; that’s progress. You have spoken about infrastructural development in FCT, that’s progress. So I just said I should say the fact. And again, the fact that you people are activists does not mean that you would do well in power. Activists have failed.”
Pointing towards Shehu Sani, Wike asked, “When you were in Senate, how did you perform?”
Then to Ozekhome, he asked, “As an activist, how many times have you rejected briefs? Those who rigged election, how many times have you defended them? It’s not about postulating all the time.”
Sani and Ozekhome did not have the time to react to Wike.
Earlier, Sani said rejecting power from the military in 1999 was a fundamental mistake by democracy fighters.
He regretted their inability to take the opportunity of taking over power from the military like the ANC did in South Africa.
Speaking in a panel discussion at the event, Sani recalled how he and other democracy fighters were imprisoned for some years before the death of former military leader Sani Abacha which led to the release of many of them.
According to him, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took over from Abacha, called them to hand over power to them but they refused to cooperate with the military, an action which he now feels was a fundamental error.
“Abdulsalami Abubakar invited all of us who fought for democracy; that I am going to hand over power to a democratic government and I want all of you the freedom fighters to come together and take over power. At that very time, Gani opposed it.”
“Three times he was inviting us we even refused to answer his call. He invited the politicians, he didn’t even invite them; they were knocking at his door.
“After we decided to listen to him, we came and sat down; what do we do? That is what the ANC in South Africa did, after the struggle, they took over political power, but after our struggle in 1998 and 1999, we made a fundamental mistake and said, we are not going to cooperate with the military.
“Mike Ozekhome is sitting here, he is one of those who opposed that we should not join. Gani opposed Falana, and Olisa Agbakoba all opposed. It was Tinubu who said if we don’t get in, who is going to be there?
“Then by the time we all agreed to join the politics, politicians had taken over all posts. Mike Ozekhome tried to be governor of Edo State, he couldn’t, Olisa tried to be president he couldn’t, Gani tried to be president he couldn’t, Falana tried to be governor of his state he couldn’t, I tried to be governor of Kaduna State I couldn’t because the space were all taken over,” Sani said.
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