Culled from an online media: A former Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam David-West, yesterday said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Mohammadu Buhari (retd), “is not too old to govern Nigeria”, saying leadership is not by age or degree but by endowment. Delivering a public lecture on the topic: “Corruption and Insecurity: Model for Nigeria”, at the 60th anniversary of the Kuti Hall, University of Ibadan, he said though Buhari would be 73 years in 2015, he is still not as old as the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe. “They say Buhari is too old. He will be 73 next year. He is very young. Mugabe is 90 years this year. Mugabe has been president since 1987. The President of Liberia is older than Buhari. Leadership is not by age or degree. It depends on endowment. “Our president (Goodluck Jonathan) has Ph.D. Is he a better leader than Balewa (Tafawa Balewa, the first Prime Minister of Nigeria)? Jimmy Carter of America has two Ph.D degrees, a Ph.D in Nuclear Physics and a Ph.D Chemistry. Was he a better leader in America? I believe in Buhari because I worked with him. I believe in him because I know he is honest. I know that he has zero tolerance for corruption,” he stated. On the allegations that Buhari is an Islamic fundamentalist, David-West commented: “I am an Anglican fundamentalist. I am a Christian fundamentalist and I am proud to be that. A fundamentalist is different from an extremist. A fundamentalist believes exactly in his religion. I believe the Bible is sacred. If you’re an Islamic fundamentalist, it means that Quran is sacred. It is different from being an extremist. “I have said this and nobody challenged me; three of Buhari’s cooks are Christians. I have published it many times. His second security officer is a Christian, his second driver is a Christian. His cook in the office is a Christian. Idiagbon’s (Tunde Idiagbon) wife was a born again Christian. You can preach better sermon with your life than with your lips. We should show example by how we live.” David-West, who served as Minister of Petroleum from 1984 to 1985 when Buhari was the Military Head of State, also recommended that any corrupt public officer should be sentenced to life imprisonment or be stripped naked and paraded in public. He added that Buhari has zero-tolerance for corruption, describing him as the change that Nigeria needs in the next political dispensation. “We can stop corruption. It is very easy. It is a moral issue. If the leaders have the moral will to change, if the parents have the moral will of dos and don’ts in the family, the children must be brought up with some strong ethical values in the family, which they will carry to outside world. “Corruption is everywhere but we can stop corruption in Nigeria if we stand up for it. If the leader is not corrupt, the people around him will not be corrupt. If the head of the fish is rotten, the body is also rotten. There is no leader that stands up against corruption that will have corrupt people around him because they know they would not go away with it. So, they cannot shift the blame.”
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 05:13:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015