Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Thursday,
while publicly presenting his latest book, ‘My Watch’, in London, told his
audience that the certificate issue against General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), APC
presidential candidate in the forthcoming general elections, was a ploy by
Jonathan’s men to stop Buhari in the election. Now at home, he attacked the
President, yesterday, accusing him of a hidden agenda over the 2015 polls.
Excerpt below…
“I believe the President’s concern of fear is
not to live out of office per se, because he and I have occasions to talk about
this both seriously and jovially. I believe the President would want an
opportunity to disengage peacefully and have a nice, decent and a glorious
exit, I believe the President’s fear is, particularly, motivated by
the person he sees as his likely successor, that is General Buhari.
“I believe people would have been telling him that Buhari
is a hard man, he would fight corruption and you may end up in jail if not in
grave. I believe people must have told him all sorts of things and he is not
the only one, there are other people who may be afraid of Buhari, but, why? I
would say that Buhari has learnt lessons; if he hasn’t learnt
lessons, then he would be probably be the most unlearning human
being.
“If he has learnt lessons, he would know that you do not
fight corruption by putting people in jail for 200 years and this has been done
by my own predecessor in office, General Abdulsalam Abubakar; he
recovered over $750 million from Abacha’s estate without putting anybody in
jail, without hurting or harming anybody. When I took over, we recovered over
$1.25 billion from the same Abacha estate without hurting anybody, without
harming anybody and, in fact, what would be rather unfortunate is the fact that
our lawyer, who is still alive, able, who was chasing this money all over the
world, said to us that there’s still about $1 billion to be recovered from
Abacha estate but the unfortunate thing is that my
successor did not do anything about it even though it was in my
handing over note”.
While speaking on the role of the Security Chiefs on the
postponement of the elections, Obasanjo said:
“That is what I said; it was strange to me; it wasn’t the
duty and responsibility of Security Chiefs and Service Chiefs to tell INEC, ‘we
are not in the position to provide security for you’ because it is their job.
When they have failed, they can as well go home, their job is to maintain law
and order and provide security at any time, at any place, they said they could
not do it, they have failed”.
On the Boko Haram insurgency as excuse for the elections
postponement, the former President said,
“You can give any excuse or you can rationalise
anything. Boko Haram has been with us since 2009 and now if we said what we
have not been able to achieve since 2009 would be achieved in six weeks, all I
would say is that God is a God of miracle. God can do anything”.
On the alleged plot to remove the Chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, Obasanjo
said: “I think the President, in his media chat, has dispelled that rumour but,
of course, I know the President very well, but I want to believe him and
believe what I see not what I hear”.
“I believe that after Jega has been boxed to
a corner, he had no choice but to accept the fait accompli and postponed the
election. And I believe that like I have said before, it is unfortunate
because in the past, this same Jega had changed the date of election when
he found it that it was not suitable. So it is the duty, responsibility,
function and jurisdiction of INEC to determine whether the situation allows or
does not allow them to go on with the election. Nobody should either twist
their arms, blackmail them or force them”.
Obasanjo added: “I appeal to President Jonathan again not
to listen to those creating phobia, phobia of Buhari, phobia of enquiry and all
that. President Jonathan has done well to the best of his ability and he has
made history as the first elected Nigerian from a minority tribe and nobody can
take that away from him. He can even make a second history; if it turns
out that way, if he contests a fair, free and transparent election and if he
loses, she should have a dignified decent and a dignified exit. He will be on
the mountain top and he would be acclaimed as a true patriot and a true
democrat. What stops him from doing this?”
- See more at: VANGUARD
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