Yar’Adua Should Beware Of His Aides – Oyegun

Former Governor of Nigeria’s Edo State and chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, has warned President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua to learn from the mistakes of former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, else he may fall. Speaking with Daily Sun on the anti–corruption war, Chief Oyegun expressed serious reservations about some of the people around the President and the things they do in his name. “I hope he will take the earliest opportunity to disown them and off-load them. We must warn him that he should not become a Shagari. Shagari, a good man as he was, was brought down by the indiscipline of those he selected to work with him. He should learn a lesson from Shagari,” the former Edo State governor stressed. He also spoke on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and says the party would destroy the nation if it does not self– destruct first. According to Oyegun, the Yar’Adua government must recognize that the war against corruption is one of the most engaging items as far as public attention is concerned and it is one of the most popular policies any government can pursue. “With the kind of revelations from the few former governors who have been charged to court, we have a nation that is truly angry with the depth to which its resources have been pillaged,” he observed. Nigerians, Chief Oyegun points out, are keenly watching the way the government is handling the anti–corruption war, and the actions of the Attorney–General of the Federation (AGF), adding, “the issue now is that the government itself is on trial, it’s in the dock of public opinion.” He supports the concept of plea bargain in the trial of those who looted public treasury as a way of reducing the enormous cost and long time of litigation. But he insists that anyone found guilty should be stripped of all his ill–gotten wealth and be made to serve a prison term, no matter how short in order that he or she becomes “a registered convict”, even as he canvasses sanitization of the nation’s legal system to remove the rot in it. Chief Oyegun comments on his expectations from the political reform panel and says enforcement of laws was the best way to instill order in the polity, just as he canvasses that provision should be made for independent candidates in the expected reform.