How Bola Ige Challenged Northerners To Prove Their Sincerity In Fight Against Abacha – Lamido

A former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has disclosed how the late Bola Ige challenged northerners in the G9 group to prove their sincerity in the fight against Sani Abacha’s rule.

The G9 group comprised nine politicians who were the foundation of what later became the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Speaking via his recently launched autobiography, “Being True To Myself”, which was unveiled to the public on May 13th, Lamido stated that the nine politicians, ex-Vice President Alex Ekwueme, former Oyo State Governor Bola Ige, Senator Francis Ellah, ex-Central Bank Governor Adamu Chiroma, ex-Plateau State Governor Solomon Lar, Jerry Gana, ex-Kano State Governor Abubakar Rimi, ex-Senate President Iyiochia Ayu, and himself, Lamido, met at No. 9 Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, to strategise on the next course of action after Abacha denied their political parties registration.

He said that in the course of discussions, while Jerry Gana was making a point, Gana was interrupted by Bola Ige, who said, “Look, Sule, before going into details about this G9, you see, Rimi is my good friend, my colleague.

“Adamu Ciroma is my friend. I know both of them very well.

“I know a lot of people from the North. Your collective position on many issues within the last few years has revealed that the North responds as one entity.

“The North has an agenda, and therefore, Rimi, Lar, Adamu, and all the other members here present, I don’t trust you.

“You are trying to use us to create a kind of moral force, a national momentum, but you have a private agenda behind it.

“Otherwise, if you want me to believe you, go back to the North and create a fresh group to challenge Abacha’s military government.

“Only if you do that will I believe you.”

Lamido went on to say, “In my response to Bola Ige’s challenge, I simply said, ‘We agree; you are right.’

“The fact of the matter was that, whether we accepted it or not, Abacha was regarded by other sections of the country to symbolically represent the people of the North.

“For them, he was simply a Northerner, and whoever was familiar with the manipulations of the government would be forgiven for imagining that we were all a party to it.

“This would support the argument that if we were genuinely against the military government, we should go back home and establish our own Northern pressure group to challenge it.

“In the end, we returned to the North and convened a meeting with that single motive.”