The Awise Agbaye and fmr. Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Wande Abimbola, said this in a chat with journalist, Olufemi Atoyebi. When asked to compare his time as a senator to what we have now, he said: .
"I was the Senate leader between November 1992 and November 1993 when the late Sanni Abacha ousted us. But the Senate I led was not paid. Only N5,000 was paid to each of us to visit our constituency once in a month.
We were all lodged and fed free at the Hilton Hotel. I have said it many times that we were not paid a dime. Our problems are the people and not the politicians. We vote them to go and steal and bring home the loot.
When Abacha drove us out, I came to my house in Oyo. That is my only house in Nigeria. I had no car, so I took a bus and arrived home at 2am. I actually had two Mercedes Benz cars that were at home for 15 years before I gave them out.
I was using taxis to go out. I went to Lagos twice in danfo (commercial bus) as a senator. On one occasion, I sat in the front seat. We entered Lagos at 5.30am. In the bus, people were talking about me.
They said that I went to Abuja and I returned a poor man taking taxis each time I went out. One of them said that people like me who could not steal should not be voted for. When the bus stopped, I looked back and greeted them.
I introduced myself to them and they were shocked. The people make the politicians thieves. I don’t cherish material things. My father built the house I live in in 1918 after he returned from the World War. I only built more houses in the compound to be comfortable. That is all I have."
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