• Your govt stinks
• You told me in 2011 you will do one term
• Corruption has reached level of impunity
• Don’t take Nigerians for granted
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan told him in 2011 that he would do one term in office. He, therefore, stated that it will be morally wrong if the president contested the 2015 presidential election.
In a letter to Jonathan, dated December 2, 2013, Obasanjo accused the Jonathan government of gradually taking Nigeria to the days of dictatorship and draconian laws, warning that unless the president desisted from this, the nation would head for doom.
Obasanjo, in the 18-page letter entitled: “Before it is too late,” stated: “Allegation of keeping 1, 000 people on political watch list rather than criminals on security watch list and training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons for political purposes, like Abacha and training them, where Abacha trained his own killers, if it is true, it cannot augur well for the initiator, the government and people of Nigeria.”
He warned Jonathan to learn from history, stating: “Here again there is the lesson of history to learn from for anybody who cares to learn from history. Mr. President would always remember that he was elected to maintain security for all Nigerians and protect them and no one should prepare to kill or maim Nigerians for personal or political ambition or interest of anyone.”
Obasanjo also warned Jonathan against listening to sycophants, saying: “Those who advise you on those who oppose you are your worst enemies. Democratic politics admits and is permissive of supporters and opponents. When the consequences come, those who have wrongly advised you will not be there to help carry the can. Egypt must teach some lessons.”
Lamenting the release of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha from jail, Obasanjo said: “Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally but particularly to the family of his victim. Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as its viewed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch.”
The former President also called on the National Assembly to rise up and take decisive action over the recent allegation in the country that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit billions of dollars in proceeds of crude oil sales to the federation account.
He stated: “This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing possible investigators. Please deal with this allegation transparently and let the truth be known.
“The dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will one day be public knowledge. Those who know are watching if the National Assembly will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand corruption. May God grant you the grace for at least one effective corrective action against high corruption, which seems to stink all around you in your government.”
Obasanjo said he wrote the letter in the national interest, saying nothing, at this stage of his life would prevent him from standing up for whatever he considers to be in the best interest of Nigeria, Africa and the world.
He said he was ready for whatever backlash his letter would provoke from the presidency.
According to him, “knowing what happens around you most of which you know of and condone or deny, this letter will provoke cacophony from hired and unhired attackers, but I will maintain my serenity because by this letter, I have done my duty to you as I have always done, to your government, to the party, PDP and to our country, Nigeria.
“I have passed the stage of being flattered, intimidated, threatened, frightened, induced or bought. Death is the end of all human beings and may it come when God wills it to come.”
Obasanjo accused the President Jonathan of destroying the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), polarising the country along regional and religious lines and ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of nations.
He blamed Jonathan for the crises tearing the ruling PDP apart, adding: “Maybe you also need to know that many party members feel disappointed in the double game you were alleged to play in support of the party gubernatorial candidate in some states where you scrumptiously supported non-PDP candidates against PDP governors supporting you for your election in the past or for the one that are yet formerly declared.
“It happened in Lagos in 2011 when Bola Tinubu was nocturnally brought to Abuja to strike a deal for the support for your personal election at the great price materially and in the fortune of PDP gubernatorial candidate. A Chairman of BOT, I spoke to you at that time. It happened in Ondo State, where there was, in addition, evidence of cover-up and non prosecution of fraud of fake security report against the non-PDP candidate and his collaborators for the purpose of extracting personal electoral advantage for you.
“In fact, I have raised with you the story of those in other states in the South West, where some disgruntled PDP members were going around to recruit people into the Labour Party to you, because, for electoral purpose at the national level, Labour Party will have no candidate but you. It also happened in Edo State and those who know the details never stopped talking about it. And you know. Ditto in Anambra State with the fiasco coming from undue interference. If you as leader of the party cannot be seen to be loyal to the PDP in support of the candidates of the party and the interest of such party candidates have to sacrificed on the altar of personal and political interest, then good luck to the party and I will also say, as I have had occasions to say in the past, good luck to Goodluck.”
He said apart from using party chairman, Bamanga Tukur, to cause multiple crises and divide the ranks of the party, the president’s failure to keep a promise he made not to seek a second term is also generating tension within the ruling party.
He stated: “It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman (Tukur) for all that goes wrong with the party. The chairman is playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). But the paymaster is acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem to be the major ingredients.
“Up till two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that statement you made to me judging by what is going on. I must say it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more honorable path.”
The former President said Mr. Jonathan told him before the 2011 election he would not seek a second term, and made the same promise to governors, party stakeholders and Nigerians, saying his refusal to keep that promise cast him as a man without honour.
Saying it would be “fatally morally flawed” for President Jonathan to contest in 2015, Obasanjo added: “As a leader, two things you must cherish and hold dear among others are trust and honour both of which are important ingredients of character.
I will want to see anyone in the office of the presidency of Nigeria as a man or woman who can be trusted, a person of honour in his words and character.”
Saying the president had failed to address the underlying causes of the Boko Haram menace, Obasanjo urged him to adopt a carrot and stick approach in dealing with the insurgency, explaining: “Conventional military actions based on standard phases of military operations alone will not permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko Haram.”
Obasanjo also tackled Jonathan for allegedly being ethnic saying: “For you to allow yourself to be ‘possessed,’ so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of Nigerians as an ‘Ijaw man’ is a mistake that should never have been allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be Nigerian if not naturalized, but the Nigerian president must be above ethnic factionalism. And those who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’ are not your friends genuinely, not friends of Nigeria nor friends of ‘Ijaw nation’ they tout about.
“To allow or tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other Nigerians from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect your interest as an Ijaw man is myopic and your not openly quieting them is even more unfortunate.”
Reacting to Obasanjo’s letter, the Presidency described it as reckless and baseless, accusing the former president of ineptitude and acts calculated at destroying Nigeria.
The presidency said the letter was unjustifiable and of containing “indecorous charges levied against him and his administration by the former head of state.”
A statement from Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati said: “We have noted the publication on several websites today of a letter recently written by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. he Presidency acknowledges that it has indeed, received the said letter from Chief Obasanjo.
“We however find it highly unbecoming, mischievous and provocative that a letter written by a former Head of State and respected elder statesman to President Jonathan has been deliberately leaked to the mass media in a deplorable effort to impugn the integrity of the president and denigrate his commitment to giving Nigeria the best possible leadership.
“While many patriotic, objective and well-meaning Nigerians have already condemned the leaked letter as self-serving, hypocritical, malicious, indecent, and very disrespectful of the highest office in the land, President Jonathan has directed that none of his aides or any government official should join issues with Chief Obasanjo over it.
“The president himself will, at the appropriate time, offer a full personal response to the most reckless, baseless, unjustifiable and indecorous charges levied against him and his administration by the former head of state.”
Also reacting, National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, through his media aide, Oliver Okpala, expressed concern that the former president could label him a stooge of President Jonathan.
Tukur further claimed that his action, since he assumed office as the party national chairman, was in line with PDP constitution.
He stated: “For such a statement against the person of the national chairman of the PDP, to come from Chief Obasanjo, a former head of states and president is most unfortunate. Chief Obasanjo, in his position as former president under the PDP platform, should have known very well the constitution of the party, the party manifestos as it relates to the independence of the PDP National Working Committee.
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