Before Jonathan Presidency, I am already a relevant person. so, I don’t need this book to be relevant. The point is that I have been in this struggle, the struggle is me, and I am also the struggle. Of course, we did a lot of things before Jonathan became the President, even though God concluded it for us. So, the moment you get to one step, you are looking beyond that step; the moment Jonathan became the President, of course ordinarily, people will look at the next step.

Last Sunday, we served you the first part of what Chief Bisi Akande, former Osun State governor and National Chairman of the Action Congress, AC, said on some burning national issues.Today, we bring the concluding part, the highlights of which are the perceived offence of the late Chief Bola Ige, SAN, and his assassination; the way the case was allegedly bungled and who to hold responsible.

Leadership in any democracy is dependent on the internal structure of the political parties and their ability to gather and marshal opinions. So, the leadership role is played by organisations, the political parties essentially who must present candidates and of course the opinions of the media and the civil society all matter in leadership.

The truth is that no nation worth its salt would stand idly and watch as a group or groups of people under whatever guise, plunder, ruin, destroy and kill its sources of survival or threaten to bring it down simply because they were agitating against marginalization or because they feel they must take what rightly belongs to them by force.

When you conduct an interview with an angry former state governor who was “conned” by a former President of Nigeria, a fellow Yoruba, what do you expect?
Bisi Akande, the former Osun State governor between 1999 and 2003 on the platform of an atrophying Alliance for Democracy, AD, but who today is National Chairman of the Action Congress, AC, can talk. But how do you stop a man who continues to provide invaluable never-before-heard information?

Luck is important in life, the most important things don’t happen just by luck. You have to work hard and of course, let me say that the whole of Asaba made an effort and I was part of that effort. Nonetheless, it happened just a few weeks after I ascended the throne so it could be said that my coming brought us good luck.

This is the second part of the Dr. Usman Bugaje interview. The first was published last Sunday. Dr. Bugaje is the national secretary of the Action Congress, AC. In this concluding part, Bugaje speaks on Obasanjo’s style of governance and the cabal which the late President Umaru Yar’Adua “imported” to the Presidential Villa, Abuja from Katsina. He also offers “the real reasons” why former Chief Obasanjo, foisted Yar’Adua on the nation, insinuating, perhaps, that it was a sinister agenda which only Obasanjo knew about. Sample: “We also heard that when he was presented with two state governors, another governor and Yar’Adua, he asked for their medical records. He then was said to have asked his own medical doctors who between the two had a worse medical record. “And it turned out from their findings that it was Yar’Adua who had a worse medical report and then he said ‘Ah! That is the man I want’, And I think he was more like let the man die. “In fact, there are those who say because of the constitutional provision which says that when a presidential candidate dies before election the election should be postponed, you remember; that he was hoping the man would….”

Let me say that corruption is an innate thing and it is an effect of poverty. It is also an effect of non-contentment. If you are not contented with what God has given to you, you will be corrupt. whether you are a commisioner or Minister does not matter, what matters is your person and how you comport yourself.

Whenever you stumble on Dr. Usman Bugaje, you have stumbled on a firebrand politician. This interview should have taken place sometime last December when Bugaje came out strongly against ailing Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, asking him to resign.But because Bugaje combines his love for politics with some academic engagements, he is not always available. Last Easter the interview almost held but a trip out of the country put paid to that. Four weeks ago, the interview almost held in Kaduna but was again aborted at the last minute.Even penultimate weekend, Sunday Vanguard almost ambushed him in Lagos and then Ibadan but it never did materialize.

I wasn’t married but I had a girlfriend then. Her Dad asked her to leave me because of my chosen course. We were wanted. Our houses were broken into. My books were carried away. Along came a kind man, who left his flat for us at Lagos Island (Bamgboshe), which now became our house and office. The IBB’s regime raised a propaganda that we were supported by the American Embassy and we were all allies.