After his second damning letter, ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo said Nigerians must appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari for
contributing to the development of the nation.Obasanjo stated on
Sunday at a press conference held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential
Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, after the release of another 16-page letter
in which he described Buhari as another Gen. Sani Abacha.The
elder statesman said the briefing was a follow-up to the letter earlier
letter which he wrote to Buhari in January 2018, advising President
against re-contesting.He said that developments after the 2018 letter had proven the contents right, adding that his predictions had been fulfilled.
”I
believe that as a watchman, it is appropriate at this time to speak out
and where there is need to raise alert, I should raise it and where
there is need to commend, I should commend,” he said.He
commended Buhari for respecting the views of Nigerians who had called
for a new Inspector-General of Police (IGP) over fears that the former
IGP, Ibrahim Idris, might aid election rigging.”I personally
commend the president for yielding to popular outcry to let the former
Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, go when he is due as he had
the track records and history of being assigned to rig elections for the
incumbent,” he said.Obasanjo, who insisted that history could
not ignore Buhari’s contributions to Nigeria’s development, prayed that
the president would witness God’s purpose for Nigeria.”History will note that he has been there.
”My fervent prayer is that President Buhari may live to see the will and purpose of God for Nigeria,” he said.
Obasanjo also said that some clerics would hold the president to his word on free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.
He, however, called on the INEC Chairman to stand firm and carry out his duties with competence and unbending neutrality.
The
former president also frowned at the prosecution of the Chief Justice
of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, over alleged non-declaration of his
assets without following due process.He further warned that with the liquidation of the ISIS in Iraq and Libya, Africa would be the next port of concentration.
Obasanjo,
therefore, called on all African countries to join the struggle in
eliminating terrorists from the region, adding that Nigeria must play a
vanguard role.In a response to Obasanjo’s second letter,
presidency said the 90-year-old former president needs a good doctor and
in anticipation of a good treatment.The spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Garba Shehu, wished Obasanjo ”get well soon”.
Obasanjo,
a partisan in next month’s election, is supporting opposition
candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who he had savaged in a book and dubbed a
‘corrupt man’ and even invoked God’s wrath upon himself, if he ever
backed Atiku’s presidential ambition.Garba regarded Obasanjo’s
attack against Buhari as puerile and the “the last push by desperate
politicians who can’t handle the President(Buhari) politically and have
resorted to subterfuge’’.“This language of his 16-page letter,
likening President Buhari to General Sani Abacha, a man he dreaded and
the one who jailed him under military laws is most unfitting from a
former President of Nigeria”, Garba said.“The claim that
President Buhari has put in place rigging machinery is both outlandish
and outrageous. We are unable to get the words to describe a 90-year old
liar, except to say that by the publication of this tissue of lies
against the President, he Obasanjo, not the President will fall from
everyone’s esteem.“As repeatedly said of him, since Chief
Obasanjo left office in 1979, he never let every succeeding leader of
the country function freely, and this included the one he personally
handpicked against all known rules drawn up by the party that put him in
the office of the President.“But Chief Obasanjo is jealous
because President Buhari has more esteem than him and the sooner he
learns to respect him the better.“It is a notorious fact that in
dealing with any leader that he failed to control, he resorted to these
puerile attacks. As the grand patron, more correctly the grandfather of
corruption as described by the National Assembly, Chief Obasanjo
released today’s letter purely for the reason of rescuing his thriving
corruption establishment.“The elections starting in February
will be free and fair as promised the nation and the international
community by President Buhari.“What Chief Obasanjo and his
co-travellers in the PDP should expect is that from the outcome, we will
teach them a political lesson that they will never forget. This margin
will be much bigger than we had in 2015.“Claims that President
Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have embarked on the
president’s “self- succession project, by recruiting collation officers
who are already awarding results based on their projects to actualise
the perpetuation agenda, in which the people will not matter and the
votes will not count” is not only utterly false, but a copious note from
the book on the failed third term agenda of President Obasanjo.“The
man, President Buhari who has taken Nigeria’s reputation to a higher
level internationally and is working hard to improve on the records of
elections he found in place cannot descend to the level that Obasanjo
has himself sunk.“As for his attacks of the administration’s
records in fighting corruption, what the former President said is no
more than evidence that President Buhari’s war against corruption is
succeeding. They thought it is all a joke.“A leader who took USD
16 billion “upfront” to supply electric power yet failed to add a
single megawatt to the national grid and to date, there is no trace of
the money is jittery that he will be called to account. He is a coward.“Chief
Obasanjo, manifesting a confused state of mind blames President Buhari
for the fall of Libya into a failed state and the unholy alliance
between the Boko Haram terrorists and the ISIS, while at the same time
calling it an African problem, saying “the struggle must be for all West
African, Central African, North African and most East African States,”
which really does not amount to saying anything new.“Nigerians
looked up to him as a role model and a ray of hope to ethical and clean
leadership until President Yar’Adua called him out to explain what
happened to the sixteen billion dollars of taxpayer’s money. It is clear
that with him sitting on top of the heap of corruption, he is no
different from the crowd he leads”.
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