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Tag: Obasanjo

  • Agbakoba: Obasanjo not part of our movement

    Continuation of the transcript of an interview with Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) anchored by Sam Omatseye on The Platform, a programme on Television Continental (TVC).

     

    Did you tell him what he damaged?

    Yeah, yeah, yeah

    What did you tell him?

    I told him that he had a massive chance. I told him he is a very intelligent, very energetic. Up till now, he is full of energy. If that energy had been well-channelled, Nigeria would have gone.

    But did you specify the things he damaged, the economy?

    Well, I’m not sure I referred to specific examples but I don’t need to refer to specific examples for him to understand that what I’m saying is true. For instance, I talked about the third term thing. The energy on third term, had it been used to erect strong institutions, we won’t be where we are.

    And they had good constitution

    Yes

    You just put something there

    He had the chance. You are the man who had the best chance to do something. He said, ‘it’s not about talking. You go and do your own. If you do, I will support as far as I can until you guys become political party.’ So, the same thing he is saying in his own coalition is the same thing that he is saying to us. So, to be quite honest with you, I’m ready to take the baby and leave the bathwater. If Obasanjo whatever he has done in the past can lead us, not the whole politicians ooo, not the people who belong to the Looters Party of Nigeria, that includes APC, PDP and most of them, but the fresh new party, we would be with him.

    With Obasanjo?

    Absolutely.

    Why would you go with him when he’s the one that damaged things?

    But we’re in a crisis.

    You’re acting like the Evangelicals and Trump, who said that we love Trump despite of the fact that he is a serial liar, he is a serial polygamist, or whatever they call it and all that. It’s like saying that, okay, we love the devil because he’s giving us our due.

    Okay, then what do we do?

    That’s why you put yourself in the ring.

    That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying that putting myself in the ring aligns towards the pragmatic. I’m not the pope, I’m not a priest. I’m a pragmatic. I’m not going to allow myself to be cajoled by any of the old things but if IBB were to call me and say, ‘look, see what you guys are doing. I like it. We will support by talking to our people. Danjuma and all those people say, ‘we’re now old men. We regret what we did in the past. What we can now do is to use guys like you to repair Nigeria.’

    But Obasanjo said he didn’t do anything. That everything was okay. So, how would you work with kind of man?

    No, he is the one saying. But you and I know that if there’s anything that caused this wahala, at least the third term thing played a great role in destroying Nigeria.

    Before the third term, he had done many things

    Of course. Absolutely.

    His war on corruption was not better than this because it was like they described in the times of Richard Nixon as the ‘enemies list’. You line up all the enemies and start going after them

    There was no question about that. It’s something that one has to be extremely careful but if it would help us get out of this morass, yeah.

    Did you get the sense that he was opportunist when he wrote that letter after what you had pushed to him? And then he went to write a letter and made it look like it was his own idea. Did you get a sense that he was being opportunist and then he was stealing something from you guys?

    I thought… hmm. That’s a negative way to put it. But the way I put it positively was that he was inspired by us. And that was the first pragmatic step.

    But he didn’t give you people any credit

    No, he didn’t give us any credit.

    So, he stole it

    (Laughs) Well, if you want to say that. But no, look, I was happy about the letter and I was happy when h announced his coalition. I was happy when Charly Boy announced his ‘Mumu Don Do’. I was happy when Oby Ezekwesili announced her Red Card Movement. I was happy when other movements came because that…

    But they look like just movements on piece of paper or just movements on the superficial level of the social media

    A movement does two things. a movement can add to the quality of the debate. That’s one level. A movement like in France can also put somebody in power. A five star movement in Italy put somebody in power. That’s why I was telling you that if you ask me, the fact that we stirred the waters, the fact that a lot of feedbacks I’m getting from even APC suggests that we need to find fresh faces also gives me joy. It means that they are now conscious that… You know, in fairness to Buhari, the stealing before was ‘I don’t care. Who will catch me? Nobody.’ But now, you have to steal with some planning.

    You have to follow due process.

    You have to follow to steal. So, that’s some credit to Buhari which is what gives him this fairytale image. To the extent that we’re making politicians conscious… because it’s all about responsibility and accountability. To the extent that we’ve done that, we’ve implanted it. Even Wike said it when I saw him, ‘Third Force.’ Okay, that’s good. I was talking with one of Asiwaju’s friend, he is a senator. He said, ‘ah Third Force.’ Okay

    So, they know about you

    They know. And if that is going to impact the system, that’s progress. If it takes us to political power which in the words of el-Rufai is where you need to be to effect change, not in a committee.

    Not even a committee

    Committee, you get to eat meat pies and issue communique and writing reports. I was in the Uwais committee, what happened? I was in Jonathan’s 2014 national conference, nothing. So, committees don’t do much.

    But it has to start with committees

    It has to start with committees. There must be one small step, leads to one giant leap.

    I’m still interested in the relationship between your movement and Obasanjo. Obasanjo started aggregating some forces, some young people, not too young like Donald Duke and a few people. Has he since then come to you to say, okay, how do we work together? Is there anything like that or have you gone to him to say, now that you’ve announced, what are we going to do together? Have you gotten to that stage?

    Well, in fairness, I work with Donald Duke who is his man. So, I haven’t seen him since but to the extent that we feel we have collaborative agendas, things we can do together and we’ve made clear that we’re not prepared to give up our own identity. We can’t do that. That is

    What is that identity? Is it like APC again because the identity of APC at that time was not so much that they had been able to pull the people along with them with a string of ideas. It was just, ‘we don’t like Jonathan, come inside.’ Is that what you’re doing because it seems that that identity has to be articulated?

    It has been articulated. First of all, the issue of the Nigerian structure. First, we believe in Nigeria, that’s the starting point but we believe that the Nigeria marriage should be rearranged and therefore the energy that Nigeria has is being suppressed and we need to have call it what you like, call it whether it’s restructure, tinkering, whatever, that is the starting point. The energy of this country is 99% asleep. The country where all the governors do is go to Abuja at the end of the month and collect a cheque and they don’t care about how to develop their states isn’t a winning formula. So, we must discuss it. And I think there’s enough material – there’s Jonathan Report, there’s OBJ, there’s enough.

    There’s enough document in this country to do anything. Whether it’s education, whether it’s culture…

    If for instance, I’m Nigerian president, I can propose to the national assembly a brand new executive bill and say, please can we in one month put in a constitution. You can’t have … Just take one example, the judicature. You can’t just have a supreme court sitting in Abuja deciding all the cases in Nigeria. It’s not possible. It’s not possible. So, we quickly have to agree on all these things so that the energies can come out. NIM believes in that. NIM believes in a very strong economy where the private sector are central to economic activity and not the government. You can’t have Fashola running across the entire Nigeria to exhaust himself without results, talking about roads, talking about bridges, talking about power when Dangote dem are there to do it. Government under an NIM framework will only do three things – formulate policy, execute it and regulate it.

    How do you execute it?

    Executing policy. For instance, you have a rail plan. It has a policy. You may now need to have institutions. So, for instance, in my field, the maritime sector, we have about six major institutions that a private sector man needs to see on ground to bring his model. So, we have to execute a national maritime policy that makes it attractive for Nigerians to invest. Nigeria is one of the only eight countries in the world and I’ve worked on this for 20 years, that has an extended EZ. I’ve spoken to at least three presidents, nobody is interested because they’re all wanting to steal oil. It’s like me telling you, ‘Ah Sam, this your land, what do you say it is? You say it is 1,000, no, but I’ve measured it, I got 2,000. Won’t you jump at it? How can a country have an extra territorial waters of 150 Nautical Miles and not be interested? The Chinese are coming here. We have one of the best shrimps, tuna… So these are the kind of things. Open the place up, establish the relevant institutions and say, government, our hands is over, we’re not inside business. If you look at the budget, the budget is so large because the government needs to be large to drive what it should not be driving and that’s business. So, if you cut government’s intervention in business, it’s shrink government. It’s unacceptable to me that three million Nigerians take 90% of our income. It’s a formula that cannot work. So the NIM has come to the conclusion that unless a radical transformation of the operating political and business models, we’re not going to go anywhere. So, that essentially is our …

    Are what you have done in your committees…

    Yes, that’s a way to translate it

    How do you translate it? In order to make any of these things work, you have to get your feet dirty.

    Good question.

    How far have you gone?

    Quite far

    How far have you gone with getting your feet dirty? Are you working in the villages? Are you working in cells and so on?

    Let me tell you. Politics is no longer going to be decided on… there are two types of voters. Even in Nigeria. And this is basically measured by algorithms and analysis. Those voters who my village head would say, ‘come, take N500 and vote here’ are no longer the majority. The bulk of the voters are not controlled by Amala politics. They’re not. Maybe at the level of gubernatorial but presidential, the social media would play a massive role ooo.

    How do you know that because the governors always play roles in presidential elections?

    Yes.

    Everybody has to, how do I put it, has to deliver, like I’m a governor of so, so state. I cannot have the liver to come to the table when the chips are down and say I didn’t deliver my state.

    Do you know why Cambridge Analytica is important? Or some of these new Russian-driven Facebook type things or what has now happened to Facebook. The digital age has changed how. I hope yu know that voting is now taking place in Nigeria. Oh, the election may be February, that’s only to declare. Minds are being shaped already. So people are saying ‘I’m voting this way, I’m voting that way.’ Sixty five million Nigerians are registered. I suggest that less than 25% are committed votes, the rest are free, uncommitted, being influenced by the way social media is playing out. And we have been following social media. We have a huge communications operations and we follow it. You just put in something. Like the other day, I put in something about a particular person, it was absolutely no, we’re not voting for this guy. And if that holds, the way politics was done in the past, Amala politics, I have to go home, that that that, may not be what you will see in 2019 because Nigerian voters became sophisticated from the time of 2015.

    So, you’re saying that money is not a factor.

    Not a big factor as it was. Why did Jonathan lose if it was?

    But there was a lot of money pooled against him.

    Jonathan had much money

    Money may not be the final factor but they say money is the mother’s milk of politics.

    I agree but not in the same old way. It changed with Jonathan. Not in the same old way. Jonathan is the first sitting president in Africa to lose an election.

    In the final analysis, you will still have to get somebody if you want to defeat Buhari.

    Yes, we have an arrowhead. It could be me.

    It could be you?

    Yes, of course. Am I not qualified to be president?

    The question is not who is qualified. It’s who can beat him.

    Anybody… I’m telling you Buhari is vulnerable. He is vulnerable. What he has going for him now is that as you say, they say okay, well, who do we vote for? There will be massive voter apathy. So two things I’ve said. First, social media would play a strong role. Two, despite of social media playing a strong role, the turn our is going to be very low, 10, 15, 20%.

    If the turn out is low, historically it favours the incumbent.

    I hope not. I hope that will be another new convention.

    So, in this your arrangement now, have you been able to clearly define your distinction with the Obasanjos and the …

    Oh, clear

    Because you say you work with them but still try to maintain…

    We’re completely different. Completely. But we see ourselves as what would I call us now, a grand coalition. Actually, we launched the grand coalition in Abuja. So, anyone whose aspiration and values, sorry not anyone, because Obasanjo may have a problem fitting in there. But any group whose aspiration and values tie in, we’ll work with that person.

    So, it means you may one way or the other still dilute your ideology. You’re still a pragmatic force.

    Yes.

    Which means that ideology is not as important as winning

    Ideology is the most important. I don’t mind losing.

    You don’t mind losing?

    No, no, no

     

     

  • Gowon, Obasanjo, Madiba, Soyinka: extraordinary encounters…

    Just for the records. There are meetings, and there are meetings. Some stand out, others are easily forgotten, never to be remembered, or recorded.  Even those that stand out may eventually get obliterated, blurred by the burden of time. Or else get remembered, only by Proustian involuntary memory. An event takes places, an experience occurs, it is lost, swept into the so-called oblivion. And then, all of a sudden, something happens! It could be a sensation, a sight, a taste… It then triggers a recall, the reminder. Out of the blues the past is brought back, a scene, a setting, a slice of life, a whole period of existence, and, voilà, time lost becomes time regained. For Marcel Proust, no amount of attempt to resort to, or rely on what he calls from intellectual memory can achieve such a feat.

    Thanks to involuntary memory, some of the not so common encounters of a distant past come calling, almost as if they happened only yesterday. Events, experiences stand out in the mind, and sharing them today, no matter how old, how late, appears imperative, for record purposes, but especially for the lessons to be learnt.

    Mandela and the cleaner

    Our first instance of involuntary remembrance of things past centres on the Tanzanian conference town of Arusha. It involved Madiba, the world-renowned South African apartheid prisoner and later president, Nelson Mandela. The Burundi (essentially Hutu/Tutsi) peace negotiations, based on an initiative of former Tanzanian president, Walimu Julius Nyerere, had just come to an end in August, 2000. Among the dignitaries and  witnesses present  at the closing  ceremony and signing of the agreement to  mark the conclusion of the UN- supported process, along with Madiba, were the then Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the former American president, Bill Clinton, some   South African  and Tanzanian generals and top UN  officials.

    At the end of the closing ceremony on that historic August day, the dignitaries walked down from the high table towards the exit at the back of the hall. Yours truly, one of the Translation Revisors recruited by the UN for the process, was at the back row of the hall, in the very edifice that also served as the Rwanda International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) premises. As they got  close to the back of the hall, a worker, most probably Tanzanian, continued with his cleaning chore, his back turned on the group, apparently unimpressed, not intimidated,  by  the presence  of these ‘big men’. At that point iconic  statesman Mandela , who had seen it all and had dealt with all manner and categories of human beings  in his long sojourn on mother earth, noticed the nonchalant, somewhat discourteous man, moved closer to him and said  ‘Good day, my friend. You don’t want to greet us?’ stretching out his hand in a gesture of friendliness. The man was thoroughly embarrassed. As for me, I was happy to have a warm handshake with the icon, an honour which the paparazzi did not fail to capture.

    Soyinka’s English

    The next instance of things past remembered, not necessarily in chronological order thanks to involuntary memory, took place here at home. It was in the days leading to the hosting of the 2nd World Black  and African Festival of Arts and Culture, first  tagged FESTAC 76, and later FESTAC 77 owing to its  postponement. That festival, hosted by Nigeria in the days of the so-called oil boom, at a time  when we told the  world that our  problem was actually not finding the money, qua foreign currency, but indeed knowing how  to spend it…

    On 1st October, 1976, that year’s Independence Day was celebrated, with the benefit hindsight and involuntary memory aiding, in pomp and pageantry. A well-attended cocktail party took place that evening on the gardens of the State House Marina and we were honoured to be present. There we were, in the company of a few international officials including the then head of the Cocoa Producers, a Senegalese, a few fellow translator/interpreters.

    In the course of the party the host of the event, the then military Head of State, decided to be courteous and move round to greet some of the guests he could reach. As he descended the steps of that part of the premises with his spouse, he was followed by some officials, aides and of course security operatives. The group got to us, to my back, and I turned round to greet. On seeing me, the soldier number one citizen thought he had seen that face before. He had indeed seen it some months earlier. In the months leading to the opening of FESTAC 77, its Secretary General, Mr Alioune Diop of Senegal, had requested and obtained an appointment to meet the Nigerian Head of State. He had a message from his President, Leopold Sedar Senghor, the famous poet and apostle of Negritude. Diop, then the FESTAC number two in command – Navy Captain Promise Fingesi was then the minister and head of FESTAC – was accompanied by Wole Soyinka, then a Consultant to FESTAC and through whose goodwill and close friendship with our number one citizen the appointment was secured. I went with the duo to Dodan Barracks, the equivalent of today’s Aso Villa, as interpreter, since Alioune Diop was French-speaking.

    At that October 1, 1976, Independence Day cocktail, the Head of State, on taking a second look at me, asked: ‘What do you do for a living?’ I replied that I was a Lecturer at the University of Lagos but was then on secondment in charge of Translation and Documentation at the International Secretariat of FESTAC. On hearing that, the future chief host of FESTAC 77 asked: ‘How is the situation at FESTAC? Any problems?’ And I seized the opportunity to tell him that although all was well we were looking for Francophone translators to translate documents into French, since Nigerians and Anglophones should normally only translate into English. On hearing that he retorted that Nigerians could handle that, after all: ‘Soyinka knows English more than the English’! And who can fault that? Of course the general who was at that time a very good friend of the future Nobel laureate, knew the value of his friend as far as the English language was concerned.

    The reward of idobale

    Another extraordinary encounter may be said to be cultural, ethical. It happened in far-away Warsaw, in communist Poland, in the heydays of Lek Valesa’s trade union, Solidarity.

    Some ten years before Valesa’s political transformation and ascension we were in Warsaw, precisely in 1981, for the world congress of the International Federation of Translators (FIT). Alongside that congress were breakout sessions, including statutory meetings of its 14-member council. I was a member of that council, its first ever and only African member.

    On one of those council meeting days, we were at a luxury restaurant in the heart of Warsaw for lunch. The council, for the records, had membership from every continent on the planet. As we moved from one culinary course to the other, the unusual happened, for that part of the world.

    Dr Lawrence Fabunmi, the then Nigerian Ambassador to Poland, appeared at our restaurant in the company of some people, foreigners and Nigerians. The seasoned diplomat, the very first Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), at the time when that body was situated at Awolowo Road, South-West Ikoyi, in one of those colonial wooden buildings, painted black. His Excellency had been my mentor in the days when as a young man one needed referees and recommendations for one application or the other.

    On sighting my mentor, I sprang up from the table and before you could say Jack Robinson I was fully prostrated, in the well-known idobale posture, an age-worn Yoruba standard practice. Of course the Nigerian Ambassador promptly called me up to my feet, very much impressed, nay elated. As for my FIT council colleagues, they all stood up, out of respect for the Nigerian envoy in his flowing agbada, and in utter disbelief of the spectacle that had just unfolded before their very eyes. Their African colleague, in a navy blue blazer with an Yves Saint-Laurent silk tie, a Pierre Cardin pair of grey trousers and a Dior belt, was proving to be very much from the so-called jungle of Africa after all! But, for the representative of the Nigerian Head of State on European territory, I was in a way only being a veritable cultural ambassador for our country out there, in far-way Eastern Europe. And what was the reward for this cultural coup de matre, master stroke, this instance of cultural dynamism, this unsolicited offer of cultural service to our dear nation? The bill for the whole of the FIT council members’ consumption that afternoon was settled by the Nigerian envoy. We all became the Ambassador’s guests.

    A translator’s clout

    One other encounter occurred during the early days of the Nigerian civil war. I had just graduated from UI and after a very short stint at teaching I was employed as Administrative Officer in the Federal Ministry of Information, with the great statesman Anthony Enahoro as my Minister and the seasoned top civil servant Alhaji Ahmed Joda as my Permanent Secretary.

    From time, to time I would be whisked away to the Ministry of  External Affairs, and from there to Dodan Barracks – the then seat of power, located in Obalende, Ikoyi, Lagos. On a few occasions I was chanced to interpret for the then occupant of the place, the young military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon. But the most memorable occasion was a day I was taken to that citadel of power and was left almost alone in a room for long hours. Eventually, just before dusk I was called out and found myself in the presence of the high and mighty of those days, the so-called ‘Super Perm. Secs’: Allison Ayida, Phillip Asiodu and of course my own Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ahmed Joda. There was a document to be translated into French. It was urgent. And I was being asked to start translating it there and then. I took a rapid look, it was about six pages, and then told my superiors coldly, matter-of-factly, without hesitation, that I would need to go to my office, at the Ministry of Information to carry my dictionaries, and go and work at home.

    What for me was a matter of course, a routine assignment, was an absolute bombshell! The sense of amazement, apprehension and to some extent irritation was palpable on the faces and in the air that evening. The document in question, and which these men of power had spent hours drafting, finalizing and fine-tuning was no other than the one to be presented by the head of the Nigerian delegation at the peace talks with Ojukwu’s Biafra somewhere not too far  from the shores of Nigeria.

    And here was this budding civil servant, an unknown quantity, barely a few months old in the precincts of power, talking of taking custody of this all-important document, top secret, taking it to his unknown home, all in the name of translation! My principal,  Alhaji Joda, saved the day: ‘I think he is responsible enough’, he opined.  And then the marching orders: ‘My driver will take you to the office, you will carry your dictionaries. He will take you home, and tomorrow, precisely at 12 noon he will come for you and bring you to my house in Ikoyi with the document thoroughly translated’. The next day was a Saturday. I complied. Translators are not traitors, to counter Dante’s assertion.

     

    • Simpson is retired Professor of French and former Commissioner for Education, Lagos State.

  • Power: Obasanjo did not achieve much with $16bn project – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday declared that former President Olusegun Obasanjo  has questions to answer over the spending of $16 billion on power project during his administration.
    Buhari spoke at the Presidential Villa in Abuja while receiving the Buhari Support Organization led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Ahmeed Ali.
    Although Buhari did not mention Obasanjo’s name, he asked “where was the power after a former president claimed to have spent $16 billion on the project?.”
     “I have to repeat what I want the public to know here. Some of you may not have heard it. Either there is no power in your place or even in the television.
    “I said and I challenge anybody to check from Europe, Asia and America. Between 1999 and 2014, Nigeria was getting 2.1 million barrels per day and average cost of 100 American dollars per barrel. It went up to $143.
    “So Nigeria was earning 2.1 million times 100 time 16 years seven days a week. When we came, it collapsed to $37-38 and it was oscillating between 40 and 54 sometimes. I went to the Governor of Central Bank, thank goodness I did not sack him, he is still there. I went with my cap in my hand and say oya. He said there was no savings, only debt.
    “And you know more than I do the condition of the roads and some of them were not repaired since PTF days. No matter what opinion you have about Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF road we did from here to Port harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on.
    “On top of other things in the institution, education, medical care and so on. You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent more than 16 billion American dollars not Naira on power. Where is the power? Where is the power?
    “And now we have to pay the debts and this year and last year’s  budget I took to the National Assembly was the highest in capital projects: More than 1.3 trillion Naira. Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?
    “So really this country luckily for me I said it about eight years that we have no other country than Nigeria, we should remain here and salvage it together no matter what you have outside.
    “Now we get some of the people with houses here and may be in Abuja or somewhere in America and Europe, they swear, some of them to God that it doesn’t belong to them. But we traced their accounts, through the banks, through their companies, it is their own. But they say it’s not their own. This is a terrible time and the people are saying what are we doing? Why can’t you lock them up?
    “And again I went on by telling them.  I said when I was in uniform, younger and rather ruthless, I got from the President downward, I locked them up in Kirikiri. I said you’re guilty except you prove yourselves innocent.
    “I myself was locked up and those who misappropriated public funds were given back what they have taken away. Who did anything about it? Then I decided to come and put Agbada. I tried one, two, three four times. God agreed. And the third time I came and met a statesman outside the Supreme Court. My Chief lawyer was Mike Ahamba, Roman Catholic and Ibo man.
    “He had witnessed in the box and asked the panel of judges that they should check on certain constituencies in certain states to bring us our register so that we can prove that the people that voted there were the people INEC submitted.
    “They say ah we shall do it. They said no, you must write it. They wrote it. Whether to send to NEC or INEC refused them but when they came to give judgment, this issue was not raised.
    “Another Ibo man, a Roman Catholic, he said that this is what happened. He was among the panel of the judges, he wrote a minority report in my favour. So, why this question of religion and ethnicity and so on. People are worshiping the dollars, the Sterling not to even talk of the Naira.
    “He wrote a minority reports saying this is what we have decided. But the President of that court was my classmate for six years in secondary school; he is from my own state. So, please, we have nothing to regret. Absolutely nothing. Since we all believe that God works in our hearts, not in our talking. God help us, God help our children and grandchildren. We will try as much as we can to work and bring this country to it senses.
    “God has given Nigeria everything; we are rich in human and material resources. Let us keep praying to God that He should put people of conscience in charge at all levels.
    “Sometimes I wonder those who can afford to educate their children  go overseas and train, America, Europe, Asia and so on. I wonder what kind of Nigerians they want their children to come and work with.
    “I think there a lot of lack of imagination. Because if you’re fighting for the country, then you shouldn’t be misappropriating or misapplying the fund the way people do, ” he stated.
    While thanking the support group, he noted that nobody is paying them for what they have been doing.
    “It is because from the bottom of your hearts; you exposed yourselves by identifying with me through opposition to success and after the success you can only get satisfaction through voluntary and understandable way of believing in issues you do. You are only expecting your return from God and you are looking for the future of the country-your children and grand children,” Buhari said.
    The House of Representatives had in 2008 described $16 billion spent on power by Obasanjo’s government as colossal waste, blaming it on “poor budget planning and a lack of proper oversight by relevant bodies.”
    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project had also in 2016 urged the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, to immediately appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations of corruption in the spending of $16 billion on electricity by Obasanjo’s government.

     

  • Again, Obasanjo laments pervasive insecurity in Nigeria

    Former President Olusegun Obadanjo has again  decried the pervasive insecurity across the country, saying he does “not know  of any Nigerian living or dead today who could boast of being adequately secured.”
    Obasanjo recalled that he met on grounds, challenges of insecurity in the country, but said his administration took proactive measures such as carrying out a lot of reforms in the military and signing into law Acts that formally established the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC).
    The arrow head of the formation of the Coalition of Nigeria Movement (CNM) that recently fused into African Democratic Congress(ADC) to wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) said he would support an amendment of the NSCDC  Act, if there is any lacuna, to accommodate private security professionals to help curb sundry security threats in the country.
    Obasanjo who spoke at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library(OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Saturday during the ASIS International 2018 leadership retreat with the theme: Building Capacity for Professional Growth, however said such private security professionals should be effectively monitored, supervised and controlled by the NSCDC.
     ASIS International 2018 is a global body of professional private security providers while the Lagos chapter of it designated as ASIS 206, organised the retreat.
    The ex – President identified corruption, bad economy, nepotism, and poor leadership as some of  the drivers of the current security threats in the country.
    He also identified four cardinal things that should be in place if the nation expects to witness reduction or cessation of the wave of security threats posed by the insurgents, violent herdsmen,  kidnappers among others.
    According to him, good governance, good  leadership, development and reclaiming of Nigeria’s  core values which emphasized honest means of livelihood, would drastically, if not totally, eliminate all of the security threats plaguing the country.
    Obasanjo noted that a good leader must have experience both in good and bad sides of life that would help him to strategize on how to handle any threat.
    The Chairman of ASIS 206 Lagos Chapter, Oluwaseyi Adetayo said that the NSCDC  law if reviewed, would guarantee professionalism of private security practice in the country as well as  boost the economy in the areas of employment opportunities and securing assets.
     “ASIS International has been providing the platform for networking, education, information on new technology and training for all security professionals all over the world on an as annual basis in the United States,” Adetayo said.
    He explained that the theme of the retreat “Building Capacity for Professional Growth” was arrived at in order to attend to one of the major gaps in our industry, which is leadership.
    “As many of us have grown to strategic leadership level in our various businesses, it is only important that we back professional and technical knowledge with required leadership skills,” he state.

  • ADC candidate urges Obasanjo to intervene in nomination crisis

    •Adesua vows not to step down for Oyinlola’s friend, Bejide

    A crisis has erupted in Ekiti State chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) over the party’s governorship ticket. Its candidate, Chief Ayodele David Adesua, has vowed not to surrender his mandate to another person.

    Adesua was returned unopposed by all 32 accredited delegates in a primary election supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday.

    But he has accused former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of attempting to impose his friend, Ambassador Dare Bejide, as the candidate after he (Bejide) lost to Mr. Akinloye Ayegbusi in the primary conducted by the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

    Adesua faulted a report in a national daily (not The Nation) that the ADC has withdrawn from participating in the July 14 governorship election, saying the party is ready to participate in the election.

    The purported withdrawal was attributed to the ADC National Chairman, Mr. Ralph Nwosu. But Adesua insisted that “it goes beyond the power of anybody to withdraw from the Ekiti governorship race on behalf of the candidate, without being delegated to do so”.

    Adesua said: “This ridiculous development gives an insight into how selfish desperation of power of a single individual can wreck the ship of a movement such as Coalition for Nigeria Movement, which is recognized locally and internationally as the team that would salvage Nigerians from the currently sinking ship of their nationhood.

    “Though we are having a good grasp of why such comedy show is being relayed on a public platform after several persuasions by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola to lure the ADC candidate in the Ekiti 2018 governorship election, Chief Ayodele David Adesua, into standing down for his friend, Ambassador Dare Bejide of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

    “It is on record that Oyinlola’s friend, Dare Bejide, was one of the SDP governorship aspirants who lost in the SDP primary election which held on Friday, 11th day of May, 2018, while Adesua was returned unopposed by the entire 32 party delegates in the governorship primaryof ADC held on May 13, 2018.

    “It must be noted that the sum of N1 million which was the fee for Adesua’s nomination form has been paid by him as requested, using text message platform by the same national chapter of the party.

    “Consequently, we will never consider sparing any effort in ensuring that we hold tight to what belongs to us, regardless of how dangerous it may appear to the success of Obasanjo’s CNM.

    “Therefore, His Excellency, Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo may need to prevail on former Governor Oyinlola before it is too late.

    “Ayodele David Adesua and his team will never lay down the people’s mandate to fly the party’s flag in Ekiti 2018 governorship election, considering how much he has singlehandedly laboured to fund the party to maturity in Ekiti State, before having a good boost of fortunes when Obasanjo’s CNM collapsed into it.”

  • Obasanjo ups the ante on Buhari

    EX-PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo is reputed to be among the luckiest Nigerians alive, certainly the luckiest to have ruled Nigeria. But whether he believes in the concept of luck or not, he will hope that by whatever name it is called, that luck will hold up very well against the divine mandate President Muhammadu Buhari’s men have clothed the Katsina-born general’s presidency. Dr Obasanjo may have hoped that by now, the blistering statement he issued in January against President Buhari’s re-election should have gained traction, panicking the president’s supporters and ranks, and creating a momentum of indescribable optimism strong enough to indicate how the political smorgasbord would look like in 2019. So far, neither the panic nor the momentum, nor anything akin to a serious movement, has manifested.

    Instead, Aso Villa has kept up its smugness, its initial diffidence in fact giving way to more assertive and sarcastic remarks against the person, plans and hopes of the Owu, Abeokuta-born general. Perhaps aware that little traction had been gained in the past three months or so in the plot to savage the president’s re-election chances, Dr Obasanjo has decided to up the ante and, as he predicted when he launched his caustic memo against the president, pass the baton to others to perform the gruelling and thankless day-to-day task of motivating Nigerians to rise against the Buhari presidency. On Thursday, after another bitter round of savage attacks on the person of the president and his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the former president announced that his Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) would be fusing into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a hitherto unknown political party founded and led since 2006 by Ralph Nwosu.

    Theoretically, there is nothing that says the newly inspired ADC cannot unhorse President Buhari and his APC. After all, the elections are still more than nine months away, and the implosion in the APC long foretold by those who sneer at the APC from within and without is just gathering steam. If the implosion in the ruling party is of such amperage as the one that took apart the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2014, there is no telling what kind of quaking and movement would be let loose. Dr Obasanjo hopes that by some quaint magic that powerful earthquake would shake the Nigerian political scene, and he believes he has positioned himself on the cusp of it to take advantage of whatever new deal is in the making, and claim credit for the society’s re-engineering and renewal.

    When he announced the fusion with the ADC last week, he managed in the same breath to dismissively characterise the APC and the PDP as both irredeemable and incompetent. The APC had an ineffective leader, a president stuck in the Middle Ages, he fumed; and the penitent PDP was incapable of summoning the will and discipline to purge its ranks of deadwood as well as instituting a new direction for Nigeria. The ADC, he then added triumphantly with a little hint of excessive boyish optimism, is virtually untainted and could help chart a new direction for the country. He is probably right about the irredeemability of the two parties, and in particular about the APC’s lack of capacity, direction, resolve and modern approach to governance, and also about the PDP’s moral turpitude. But his ADC is still so impressionably young and inexperienced that it would require a fairly modern and literate electorate to appreciate its potentials, let alone embrace it in 2019.

    It was also clear last week that Dr Obasanjo was unwilling to get into bed with the PDP for any reason, and was mysteriously quite unable to hammer out a deal of any kind with the enthusiastic but equally disenchanted Nigerian Intervention Movement (NIM) led by the legal luminary, Olisa Agbakoba, and the politician, Abdujalil Tafawa-Balewa. There is no strong reason for the former president not to be able to work with the PDP, seeing that many of his former political associates, regardless of their failings, are still PDP members. It is true that former vice president Abubakar Atiku has returned to the party, and a number of strapping and iconoclastic Young Turks now call the shots in the country’s second largest party. But if Dr Obasanjo is wary of associating with the PDP, the reasons are probably not fully located within the former ruling party, but in himself.

    Indeed, by pursuing a completely new direction to the political remaking of Nigeria, Dr Obasanjo may be taking his biggest risk ever. For a man who has ridden on the crest of luck since he began to live on public funds, being worsted by President Buhari in 2019 is to sentence him to a black hole of silence, diminution and anonymity such as he, a veritable narcissist, has never experienced. When the APC created the amalgam that scalded the PDP in 2015, its leaders were less finicky about the ethical composition of the new party’s constituent parts. As recent events have shown (See Box), the party in 2014 neither attempted to crown a leader, fearing the dire implication of such a premature step, nor even tried to share the spoils of office, perhaps aware that the controversy it would whip up would be unmanageable. They thought they were mature enough to do the right things after victory. They were grossly mistaken.

    However, by opting for a completely new beginning, Dr Obasanjo is simply being true to himself. He is afflicted with the itch to run things, craves a following but never follows anyone, and possesses a forceful and mercurial personality that is sadly not underpinned by a consistent and coherent body of ethics or principles. He was from the very beginning unlikely to create a movement in which he would struggle with other powerful and knowledgeable individuals to shape the party and chart its philosophical direction. Since he lacks the discipline and depth needed to build new and great entities, he thrives more when he inherits a machine already built by gifted pioneers. He has inspired a movement against President Buhari’s re-election; he will hope that the movement survives and thrives. But for now, he will leave the hard work of setting the movement on a firm foundation, even if it has to be the foundation of an existing political party, to others. He will be satisfied pulling the strings from the distant background. However, whether the movement and the ADC will amount to anything in the months ahead will not be immediately clear until the self-destructive APC takes giant steps into the abyss.

    No one knows the ADC, nor cares who its leaders are. With Dr Obasanjo’s men now planted in its leadership, all that matters is that it will be the temporary anchor for the former president’s fight against President Buhari. Against the APC, it will stand no chance, though the ruling party is poorly led, is cabalistic, and is unprincipled and beatable. But if the magic Dr Obasanjo has grown used to expecting all his life should occur and the APC begins to wilt in a way that shakes the confidence of its panjandrums, panic could set in and its leadership could fracture very easily. That leadership has always, since 2015, been in danger of fracturing anyway. Those who still keep faith with the APC do so despite knowing the party to be substantially incapable of reforming itself. For as long as the archconservative President Buhari sits regally at the head of the party waving his populist talisman, neither the cabal nor the party’s conservative, if not even reactionary, principles would be tinkered with.

    It will require events and measures of tectonic proportions for those who keep the APC afloat to bolt from its stable. It is anybody’s guess whether those events would occur. But party leaders know instinctively that the Buhari presidency is less queasy about the rule of law than its predecessors, and more heavy-handed than all of them combined. To bolt from the APC stable, as it is speculated of Senate President Bukola Saraki and others, is to court grave risks. Those inclined to bolt will, therefore, be wary of how they do it and when. If they bolt, and it is substantial enough, the APC will be unlikely to recover. But whether the country, despite its desperation to embrace a new party and a new deal, will knowingly walk into the embrace of the undisciplined and sanctimonious Dr Obasanjo is hard to fathom. They blame him for the madness that has overtaken the country, a madness he wholly scripted and inspired, a madness that oversaw the elections of the lethargic Umaru Yar’Adua, the overwhelmed Goodluck Jonathan, and after a few convoluted events, the coming of the patrician and messianic President Buhari himself.

    If by October or November the APC stable doors are still firmly locked, a prospect that is increasingly in doubt given the severity of the alienation the president himself has authored and supervised, both Dr Obasanjo and his ADC coalition must begin to contemplate the bitter repercussions of their rashness. The former president is famously believed to be inured to insults and every form of indignity humans can offer one another; but faced with an unusually vengeful President Buhari and the catalysing instigation of the detached cabal around him, no one can say for sure that Dr Obasanjo will be as sanguine as he always pretends to be. He began his public career on a high note, reaping where he did not sow, and prospering at the public expense; he will be loth, at over 80 years of age, to end that enviable career at the bitter receiving end of the fury of a president whose capacity for leadership and intellectual exercises he scorns very deeply.

  • 2019: Obasanjo deceiving Nigerians again — Yoruba Ronu

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come under attack from the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum over his campaign against President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    In a strongly worded statement signed by its General Secretary, Akin Malaolu, on Friday night, the group said Obasanjo was trying to deceive Nigerians again with “rhetorical and platitudinous speeches”.

    The statement came barely 24 hours after Obasanjo endorsed the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the political platform to be deployed to unseat Buhari in 2019.

    Addressing a news conference in Abeokuta on Thursday, Obasanjo said his Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) had adopted the ADC as its political party.

    The former leader explained that the adoption followed a “detailed examination and wide consultations by the leadership of the Movement with the consideration of the orientation and policies of the movement”.

    On Jan. 23, Obasanjo wrote Buhari criticising him over a number of national issues, including the killings of innocent Nigerians, and advised him against seeking re-election.

    The former president upped the ante in a statement by his spokesman, Kehinde Adeyemi, in March describing Buhari as a failure.

    Yoruba Ronu, a staunch supporter of the current president, said it was not surprised by Obasanjo’s several statements to hoodwink Nigerians.

    The socio-political group said it rather found it surprising that the ex-president and his “fellow travellers took Nigerians for fools”.

    It said, “However, Nigerians do sincerely and mournfully remembered what the conditions of things were in relation to unemployment, corruption and general decadence of our many institutions of governance in the 16 years of PDP in power.

    “It was not without doubt that the Yoruba Ronu leadership forum warned Nigerians against trusting the candidate Jonathan in 2010 due to his several weaknesses and obtuseness in power.

    “More so, when Jonathan himself  confirmed to our foreign friend, former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, that he lacked administrative experience to be president, but was there by chance because of where he came from which was South South.

    “Today, we can measure with clarity of mind, the sad and obtuse footprints he left behind.

    “Leaders across the two divides, and including Obasanjo, Ohaneze and Afenifere, all saw Jonathan’s incapacitation in administration but they chose self-regarding objectives rather than other regarding objectives in their very many decisions.”

    Obasanjo is generally believed to have influenced Jonathan’s emergence as Vice to late President Umaru Yar’Adua in the 2007 general elections.

    In the 2011 presidential elections, Obasanjo also played a big role in the election of Jonathan as President after he took over the saddle following Yar’Adua’s death in 2010.

    Yoruba Ronu continued, “Democracies which distinguished a man from his office was snubbed for religion and tribalism to hold sway.

    “They planted the seed of division long before now and they are still repeating same perplexing errors in their ignorance.

    “The people of Nigeria today wear better spectacles and with good perceptions to know what is good for them and for their children’s future.

    “They are not going to allow some false leaders and leaders that could commit abomination with ease take away their hopes in the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “We must warn against war, because wars have never solved the needs for war anywhere in the world and in wars, procreation is delayed, women and their children would suffer.”

    “Nigerians must pray fervently against these ignoble men and their desire to enslave us all, we must pray for the extermination of what they all stands for.

    “The progressives and APC must prepare themselves in this war of attrition between thesis and antithesis, a political war that will be won by them due to fairness, justice and happiness, which they have promoted  in this present administration of President Buhari.

    “Those who may want to go can go in peace, but the generality of Nigerians and the Yoruba race are with Buhari and the APC.

    “We awesomely believe in the intervention and righteousness of the present Government in administration.” (NAN)

  • PDP to Obasanjo: we have changed our ways

    The leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has pleaded with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to give the party another chance, saying the PDP has changed its ways.

    Apparently the main opposition party is disturbed by the decision of the Obasanjo-led coalition to collapse into the African Democratic Congress (ADC) against expectations of finding accommodation in the PDP.

    One of the arrowheads of the Obasanjo coalition, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, had on Thursday announced the collapse of the group into the ADC for the purpose of unseating the Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the 2019 elections.

    A statement yesterday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, kola Ologbondiyan, assured Obasanjo that the concerns raised by him in respect of the PDP had been extensively addressed in the “refocused and repositioned PDP”.

    Obasanjo had described the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP as failures that must not be voted for in the 2019 general elections.

    The statement reads in part: “Already, our reforms and rebranding efforts, particularly, the full entrenchment of internal democracy, all-inclusiveness and re-engineered mechanisms for good governance, have returned the party to the much desired political platform that represents the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians ahead of the 2019 general election.

    “In the last five months, since the coming of the new leadership, under Prince Uche Secondus, the PDP had undergone extensive re-engineering in direct responses to suggestions, criticisms and wide-range of constructive counsel from Nigerians across board.

    “The transparent processes, leading to the peaceful conduct of an open, credible, free and fair governorship primary in Ekiti State, at a time when other political parties are enmeshed in impunity-induced crisis and violence, is a loud testimony of the democratic credentials and principles of the repositioned PDP.

    “Furthermore, the reconciliatory efforts of the Governor Seriake Dickson’s committee as well as the rebuilding of the party, through the Contact and Integration Committee, are yielding tremendous dividends as manifested in the mammoth crowd that graced our rallies in Jigawa, Katsina and Osun states.

    “Our party remains the only political platform with genuine followership and structure in all the electoral wards across the local government areas, states and the six geo-political zones in the country. It is also instructive to add that majority of Nigerians still  identify with the PDP as the vehicle for national cohesion, unity, economic prosperity and personal freedom of our citizens.

    “Furthermore, our initiative towards the nation’s economic recovery has commenced with the development of a robust and all-inclusive blueprint that will reopen the currently locked-down economic space, redirect the productive energies of our citizens through deliberate wealth creation policies and opportunities in all sectors.”

  • PDP to Obasanjo: We have changed our ways

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday pleaded with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to give the party another chance, saying the PDP has changed its ways.

    Apparently the main opposition party is disturbed by the decision of the Obasanjo- led coalition to collapse into the African Democratic Congress (ADC) against expectations of finding accommodation in the PDP.

    One of the arrowheads of the Obasanjo coalition, Olagunsoye Oyinlola had on Thursday announced the collapse of the group into the ADC for the purpose of unseating the Muhammadu Buhari- led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the 2019 elections.

    A statement issued on Friday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, kola Ologbondiyan, assured Obasanjo that the concerns raised by him in respect of the PDP had been extensively addressed in the “refocused and repositioned PDP.”

    Obasanjo had described the APC and PDP as failures that must not be voted in the 2019 general elections.

    The statement said: “Already, our reforms and rebranding efforts, particularly, the full entrenchment of internal democracy, all-inclusiveness and re-engineered mechanisms for good governance, have returned the party to the much desired political platform that represents the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians ahead of the 2019 general election.

    “In the last five months, since the coming of the new leadership, under Prince Uche Secondus, the PDP had undergone extensive re-engineering in direct responses to suggestions, criticisms and wide-range of constructive counsels from Nigerians across board.

    “The transparent processes, leading to the peaceful conduct of an open, credible, free and fair governorship primary in Ekiti State, at a time when other political parties are enmeshed in impunity-induced crisis and violence, is a loud testimony of the democratic credentials and principles of the repositioned PDP.

    “Furthermore, the reconciliatory efforts of the Governor Seriake Dickson’s committee as well as the rebuilding of the party, through the Contact and Integration Committee, are yielding tremendous dividends as manifested in the mammoth crowd that graced our rallies in Jigawa, Katsina and Osun States.

    “Our party remains the only political platform with genuine followership and structure in all the electoral wards across the local government areas, states and the six geo-political zones in the country. It is also instructive to add that majority of Nigerians still identify with the PDP as the vehicle for national cohesion, unity, economic prosperity and personal freedom of our citizens.

    “Furthermore, our initiative towards the nation’s economic recovery has commenced with the development of a robust and all-inclusive blueprint that will reopen the currently locked-down economic space, redirect the productive energies of our citizens through deliberate wealth creation policies and opportunities in all sectors.”

     

     

  • Buhari, APC taking Nigerians for fools says Obasanjo

    … CNM has adopted ADC as its party – Ex- President

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday declared that President Muhammadu Buhari, and his All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled government have been taking “Nigerians for fools.”

    Obasanjo, who lamented that the fortunes of most Nigerians have taken a turn for the worse in the last three years despite claims to the contrary by Buhari and APC, called for concerted efforts from people to send them packing in 2019.

    The ex – President, who made this known while briefing reporters at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, also announced that his Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) has adopted the African Democratic Congress(ADC) as a political platform to achieve the dream of changing the current state of governance at all levels in the country come 2019.

    Read Also: Obasanjo wrote Bush over my U.S property – Kalu

    He also warned people not accept the call for forgiveness by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for taking Nigerians for a ride, saying while the party had sought forgiveness, it did not deemed it fit to discipline members who used eight years to bring woes upon the country through poor governance.