Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has defended elder statesman Retired General Yakubu Gowon against allegations of looting.
British parliamentarian, Tom Tugendhat, had on Monday alleged that the former Military Head of State took half of the money in Nigeria’s Central Bank with him to London when he was overthrown in 1975.
Debunking the allegations as baseless, Fani-Kayode said Gowon was neither a thief nor looter.
According to him: “I have my views about Gowon and what I consider to be his role in the mass murder and genocide of 3 million Igbos during the civil war and I have often expressed it but he was not a thief and neither did he amass wealth for himself when he was Head of State.
“As a matter of fact, he was the darling of the British Government and no Nigerian leader, living or dead, has been as close to successive British Governments as he. This very young British MP is trying to revise history and demonise a man who served and protected British interests in Nigeria when he was in power more than any other and this is most dishonourable and unfair,” he said.
The former minister who accused the British of being “the greatest looters in the history of humanity,” called for an end to racist attempts aimed at stereotyping of every Nigerian and African leader as being corrupt.
“The truth is that even though they pretend and sweep it under the carpet, there are as many corrupt British leaders, government officials and public servants today as there are Nigerian and this has always been the case.”
“The difference is that they are not so obvious and brazen and they cover theirs up very well in a very sophisticated banking system which thrives on taking in dirty money and keeping it.
”Whoever this MP is should get his facts right and stick to talking about the #EndSARS protests rather than talk about our history which he evidently knows nothing about.”
