Unable to bear Obasanjo’s continuous attacks on him, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday refuted the ex-president’s allegations against him as “very odious and repugnant” claims targeted at scuttling the 2015 general polls to enable him push for an Interim National Government, which he intends to head.
The president noted, however, that “thankfully, the vast majority of Nigerians who are patriotic and right-thinking cannot be fooled by Chief Obasanjo’s antics.
“As we have had cause to say before, it is most regrettable indeed that a man like Chief Obasanjo, who should know better, chooses to repeatedly, wantonly, and maliciously impugn the integrity of a sitting President of his country for the primary purpose of self-promotion”, he added.
The president who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati noted that “For reasons best known to him, Chief Obasanjo has set his mind on regime change by fair or foul means”.
Accusing Obasanjo of trying to return to power through the back door, Jonathan said, “Indeed, it is not President Jonathan, who remains faithful to his oath of office, who is trying to plunge Nigeria into crisis, but Chief Obasanjo who is scheming to plunge the country into chaos in pursuit of a selfish and highly egocentric agenda.
“Chief Obasanjo’s plot with others within and outside the country to thwart the general elections and foist an unconstitutional Interim National Government, which he hopes to head on the nation is well known to us, but by the Grace of God Almighty, his odious plan to return to power through the back door will fail woefully”.
In a statement he issued yesterday evening, Abati said Jonathan is aware that it is “in pursuit of this nefarious plot that the former President continues to sow the seeds of discord and crises in the polity by purporting to remain in the ruling party while openly consorting with the opposition, endorsing its candidates and predicting victory for opposition candidates in a manner most unbecoming of a supposed elder statesman.
“We find the false claims and allegations reportedly made against President Goodluck Jonathan by Chief Olusegun on Saturday in Abeokuta very odious and repugnant”.
Abati continued: “It is obvious from Chief Obasanjo’s serial vituperations against President Jonathan who is doing his best to positively transform Nigeria for the benefit of all of its people that he has willfully chosen to close his eyes to the present administration’s good works and intentions.
“Otherwise, it would be completely senseless, irrational and out of place for Chief Obasanjo, who still claims to belong to the same party as the President, to accuse President Jonathan of plotting to win the rescheduled presidential elections by “hook or crook” and planning to plunge the nation into crisis if he loses the election.
“For the record, President Jonathan has no such intention and will continue to give the greatest possible support to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other relevant federal agencies to ensure that the rescheduled elections are successfully conducted”.
Assuring that Jonathan was committed to ensuring democracy, he said, “We urge them to be assured that President Jonathan’s commitment to democracy in all its ramifications remains constant and that he will never be party to the use of any unlawful means to remain in office or gain political advantage over his opponents.
“The President stands by his commitment, which he reaffirmed on national television last Wednesday that on his watch, all elections in Nigeria, will be free, fair and credible, and that all certified election results will be respected.
“As President Jonathan has also assured the nation, the rescheduling of the general elections was in the best interest of the nation and was never driven by any ulterior motive on the part of government as Chief Obasanjo and others have alleged.
“President Jonathan will continue to put his best efforts into giving Nigeria quality leadership and will not be distracted from his purpose by unwarranted and needless criticism by persons who ought to know better.
“The President also continues to trust in the good judgment of Nigerians and to believe that in appreciation of his sincere efforts to move the country forward over the past four years, they will re-elect him for a second term on March 28, 2015 with a mandate to pursue his agenda for national transformation to a successful conclusion”.
But the former President Obasanjo, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of hatching a grand plan to ensure that he wins this year’s presidential election by hook or crook.
The former leader likened the style of President Jonathan towards the election to the attitude of former Cote D’Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo who was disgraced out of power after he orchestrated a shift in election date in that country, lost the poll by 8% to Lansana Watara when the elections eventually held but refused to hand over power thereby plunging his nation into turmoil. “Either the President is following his own grand plan, or he and his associates are working the script. They are playing a script which of course must have got his endorsement if not initiated by him.”
Obasanjo, who spoke earlier to journalists from his Hilltop mansion in Abeokuta said: “What is observable and what would appear to be happening is that the President has a grand plan, a grand plan to ensure that by hook or by crook he wins the election or if it all fails he scuttles it and creates chaos, confusion and unpleasantness in the whole country because it is the duty and function and responsibility of the security officers to provide security. Failure to do so is dereliction of duty, pure and simple.”
He added the decision to shift the elections was forced on the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC), dismissing the security excuse adduced for the poll shift saying security chiefs are setting bad precedents by forcing INEC to shift polls. “It turned out that it was a forced decision on the INEC because it was alleged that the security chiefs were unable to provide security and as a result the INEC had to postpone the elections in accordance with the dictate of the so called security chiefs. I think, to me, that was a bad decision for democracy and for Nigeria.”
Obasanjo said Boko Haram insurgency as we know it today has been raging for five years wondering the miracle a six-week interval will do. He mentioned some countries with full scale wars where elections have been held. “Look, Boko Haram problem has been with us since 2009 and now you say what we have not been able to achieve since 2009, we will achieve in 6 weeks?
“Well all I will say is that God is a God of miracle; God can do anything but look at countries like Syria which had election. They have full scale war all over the country. Countries like Iraq had election, they had full scale war and they are still having. Countries like Afghanistan had election; they even had election where the incumbent had his term and moved out.
“Even countries like Colombia where they have FARC, their own insurgent group, active for more than 50years, have been regularly having elections and FARC is still very much active, so to say that what you have not been able to achieve in five years you will now achieve in six weeks, let us wait and see, that is my view.”
The ex-president said Jonathan’s greatest phobias were life after presidency and the possibility of Buhari instituting a probe against him. “I believe the President’s fear is particularly heightened by whom he sees as his likely successor, that is Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, but assured that Buhari should have learnt his lessons by now, that you don’t need to jail people for 200 years to fight corruption.
“Buhari should have learnt his lessons. He should by now know that you do not fight corruption by putting someone in jail for 200 years. This was demonstrated by my own predecessor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. He recovered over 750 million dollars from Abacha’s estate without putting anybody in jail, without harming or hurting anybody. When I took over, we recovered over 1.25 billion dollars from the same Abacha estate without hurting anybody and in fact that our lawyer, who is still alive and able, who was chasing this money all over the world said to us that there is still about well over 1 billion dollars to be recovered from Abacha estate. The unfortunate aspect is that my successor could not do anything about it even though it was in my handover note.”
He added that corruption must not remain a part of our national life and reiterated his belief in the capabilities of General Buhari to tackle the evil owing to his previous track record of governance as well as firm personal principles.
“I believe he (Buhari) will try to fight corruption. He had tried to do it before. I believe that he will give firm leadership which is necessary for a country like ours.”
He however appealed to Buhari to respect human rights, the rule of law and the constitution if voted into power, “I also will like appeal to Gen Buhari, if he wins, one of the things he should do is to allay the fears of those who see him as boogey or as a threat particularly in the areas of human rights, rule of law and obedience of our constitution.”
On recent revelation regarding last year’s election and military’s involvement in Ekiti, Obasanjo described the state as “’disaster that will continue for a long time.’ “I don’t want to comment on Ekiti State, because Ekiti State is a great disaster and it will continue to be so.”
He said the denial of Jonathan that he was not aware of the position of the security chiefs regarding the election only confirmed that “Jonathan is reigning and not ruling”. He then challenged Jonathan to expose the ‘shadowy group ruling the country.’
“The President on his media chat on the 11th of this month claimed not to have knowledge of the development. So I get very worried that if the President of Nigeria is not in charge of security, maintenance of law and order and such a decision can be taken behind him assuming that is true, then the President must be reigning and not ruling. And then who are the shadowy figures that are ruling us? Who are they? It means that one day we will wake up and discover that this country has been plunged into chaos, into commotion, into confusion and the President would say I do not know about it”.
“I have offered some warnings before, but let me still appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan for him not to do anything to destroy our fledging democracy, because democracy is not a destination, it is a process and the more we strengthen the process of democracy and the institutions, the better for us.”
“Again, I will appeal to Jonathan not to listen to those that are creating phobia, phobia of Buhari, phobia of equiry and all that, President Jonathan had done well to the best of his ability and he has made history as the first elected President of Nigeria from a minority tribe. Nobody can take that away from him. He can even make history a second time if it turns out that that he contested a fair, free and transparent election.
I also want to appeal to the PDP and the APC as the two major parties that they have responsibility of ensuring the continuation of our present democratic process and if any of them does anything to cut short the process, it will be too drastic and unfortunate.”
