2015 – Lamido Can Do the Job – Obasanjo

Obasanjo, on Wednesday, said he single-handedly selected Sule Lamido to be the governor of Jigawa State, insisting that his choice had paid off.
The former president, who was the chairman of an economic and investment summit held at the Sir Ahmadu Bello Conference Hall, Dutse, said the summit was part of dividends of democracy in the state and country at large, adding that Governor Lamido had shown by his achievements in office that he was the right person to lead the state.
“You people of Jigawa, once again, I congratulate you and I congratulate myself, because if you can say, yes, Obasanjo forced this one (Governor Lamido) on us, it is a good forcing.
“You can help anybody to find a job, but you cannot help anybody to do the job. In this case, we found a job for Sule Lamido, he was ready, willing, able and competent to do the job,” he said.
The relationship between Chief Obasanjo and Governor Lamido dated back to 1999 when the former president appointed the governor as a foreign minister, before he contested and won the governorship election in Jigawa State in 2007.
Obasanjo said he cancelled his trip to Morocco in order to celebrate Democracy Day in Jigawa with Governor Lamido, adding that the state was the most investor-friendly among the 36 states in the federation.
He also described Lamido as “a person who exhibited good governance and one who is also competent to rule Nigeria.”
According to Obasanjo, “the way Lamido revitalised the Jigawa State education sector, with provision of good road networks, adequate infrastructure, social security and free trade has now made the state to be a haven for investors, and to the best of my knowledge, there is no state in Nigeria today which investors’ confidence can be greater than Jigawa State.
“We must invest in education to save the larger population of the country, otherwise our population will become a liability.”
In his speech, a member of British parliament, Lord Boateng, said it was good for the African countries to address the problem of capacity building and poor policies to attract investment.