President Buhari, right, and Akande at the book launch

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

President Muhammadu Buhari today, December 9, 2021, attended the public presentation of My Participations, the autobiography of Chief Bisi Akande. The event took place at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. At the occasion, he showered praises on the former All Progressives Congress Chairman for his Spartan discipline and sense of loyalty to justice. However, Buhari took a dig at former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the way he hoodwinked South West’s Alliance for Democracy (AD) Governors, including Akande, in 2003. In that election, it was Asiwaju Tinubu who was the last man standing in the zone.

In the words of Buhari: “It is common knowledge that Akande was the victim – along with other AD Governors – of a diabolical double-cross which ended his gubernatorial career. Only the steadfast Asiwaju Bola Tinubu escaped the electoral massacre masterminded by President Obasanjo.

”Desperately disappointed though he was, and being a good Muslim, he accepted this setback as part of the trials of life. He looked to the future of service to the country.”

Asiwaju Tinubu and Buhari

Buhari described Akande as a ‘‘perfect public officer,” and the type of person he could go into the jungle with, saying that he had retained his ‘‘inflexible integrity,” in and out of public office, never accepting or offering bribes.

The President went further: ”My first personal contact with Chief Akande was, if I recall correctly, in 2006 when preliminary consultations were coming to fruition for a grand coalition to unseat the PDP Government.

”Those efforts eventually came to nothing.

”Neither he, nor I, nor many of our friends and associates gave up as, in Chief Akande’s words: “the country was going down and down under PDP” (p.396 of My Participations), ” he said.

President Buhari and other dignitaries holding Akande’s book during the launch

On Akande’s participation at the Constituent Assembly, Buhari went further: ”He was always in the thick of things through the difficulties and political discontinuities of the 1980s and 90s.

‘‘He emerged as Governor of Osun State in 1999 when the military handed over to the civilians.

”Chief Akande had a horrendous baptism as Governor of Osun State with discord from his own party; his State Assembly (including an attempt to impeach him without any reason whatsoever); from the trade unions and from his own deputy Governor!

”On top of that, he inherited a deeply indebted Treasury, huge arrears of salary, allowances, and pensions. Enough challenges to overwhelm many aspiring leaders.

”Bisi Akande stood four square and faced all the challenges head-on and overcame most of them.

”His first action was to stop payment of “critical allowances” a euphemism for government money customarily shared by the big boys in Osun State.

”This set the tone of his Administration,” the President said.

The President mentioned also Akande’s financial wizardry in Osun when he was Governor.

”By 2003 Chief Akande had virtually sanitised governance in Osun State having cleared some of the troublemakers from his government and, though reluctant to serve a second term, he was persuaded to run again,” he said.

‘Chief Akande, as the President put it, was in the thick of further attempts in 2011 and 2014 to fuse together different groups and dislodge PDP from governance.

”The key to his thinking which coincides with mine is that Nigeria can only be successfully managed by alliances between major groups.

”Although we failed in 2011 but by persistence and knowledge that PDP was driving the country towards disaster, several major parties were able to finally coalesce into APC in 2014 .

”Chief Akande was unanimously chosen as the first Chairman of this great coalition.

”Throughout the difficult negotiations, I found Akande truthful, steady and always with an eye to the ultimate goal.

”In or out of office, he has retained his inflexible integrity. On p.400 of his book, he wrote: ‘I never gave to or demanded bribe from anyone all my life.’ A perfect gentleman. A perfect public officer, he said.

Buhari quoted a famous Hausa saying, ”Labarin zucciya a tambayi fuska” (loosely translated -if you want to know what is in a man’s heart watch his face), President Buhari affirmed that Akande has a permanent smile on his face, saying ”He is the type I will go into the jungle with.”

On the book, President Buhari recommended it to students of Nigeria politics and the general public alike.

”This book is a historical document. Students will find this an invaluable source of Nigeria’s politics, notably between 1999 and 2020,” he said.