Founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Atedo Peterside on Tuesday said the late nationalist Moshood Abiola was not given the chance to deliver on his promise as a change agent.
He stated this while discussing national issues with the former director-general, Bureau of Public Service Reforms Joe Abah on Twitter.
Abah had first said: “Until we change our Constitution and restructure our governance system, the discontent in the land, the distrust between constituent parts, and the focus on sharing rather than production will continue. It doesn’t matter who comes in 2023, 2027 or 2031, nothing will change.”
Peterside reacted: “But we are unlikely to be able to change the Constitution unless we have a President and Political Party in power that believe in this project. I think that makes who leads us come 2023 doubly important and not the other way around. If you want change then elect a Change Agent.”
Abah responded that Nigeria’s current political system was unlikely to allow a change agent to emerge.
Peterside then brought him Abiola into the discourse, describing him as a change agent who had his own resources and was supported by corporate Nigeria. “He gave us hope,” he said.
A Twitter user @bio_jibril countered, saying Abiola could not be regarded as a change agent.
“You can’t judge a man on what he planned but didn’t get the medium to implement it,” he wrote.
Then Peterside replied: “The point being made is that MKO was voted for on the basis of the fact that he convinced us that he was the Change Agent that we desired at the time + he came via an existing Party. Nobody said that he delivered on the promised change. We never got a chance to test him on that.”
