Former governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole, has confessed that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan achieved so much as president of Nigeria.
Oshiomhole who also served as national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said good leaders are often not appreciated by Nigerians until they are out of office.
He stated this at a one-year memorial lecture in honour of late Capt Hosa Okunbor in Abuja, stating that, although he fought Jonathan out of office because it was part of what is obtainable in a multi-party democracy, adding that Jonathan laid down legacies that his successors cannot and are not expected to water down.
Oshiomhole said fighting Jonathan out of office was just part of politics, saying that one of the former president’s legacies was the Almajiri school which, as he put was created based on the belief that “no Nigerian child should be left on the street and also appropriated special funds.”
“You left legacies even though I had cause to fight because it is politics. The legacy you have left, there is no successor who can afford to do less.
“But the logic of multi-party democracy is that even an angel can be defeated. You have set a standard that none of your successors can afford to go below.
“Part of your legacies was when you launched the almajiri school and your thought was that no Nigerian child should be left on the street and also appropriated special funds.
“These ideas are not new but what we lack is the will to transform it to practice. We never know who are our friends until when we are no more.
“No one is appreciated until he or she leaves office,” he stayed.