The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Obasanjo

  • Obasanjo counsels leaders on continuity in government

    Obasanjo counsels leaders on continuity in government

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised leaders at all levels to ensure continuity of good policies and projects in governance to aid infrastructural and human capacity development in the country.

    The former president stated this when the Good Governance Group (3Gs) led by its convener, Comrade Seyi Mohammed Gambo, paid him a courtesy visit in his Hilltop House, Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the weekend.

    Addressing members of the 3Gs Obasanjo said most of the failures witnessed in the country were caused by refusal of successive governments to continue institutional and policy frameworks and projects put in place by their predecessors.

    He cited the Operation Feed the Nation and the reforms in the rail transportation and power sectors initiated during his administrations as military head of state and later as civilian president, which could have been beneficial to Nigerians, saying they were abandoned by successive governments.

    The former President also said  the government should encourage growth of private investors and ensure that they are bigger, adding that “the bigger private operators should be able to encourage price reduction on commodities.”

    He called on the government to set up Anti-Trust Commission to protect Nigerians from oppressive big entrepreneurs, saying, “I will never go against Nigerian entrepreneurs getting big but I will go against them becoming oppressive.”

    Earlier in his speech,  Gambo said the visit was to tap from the experience of the former president on issues bordering on leadership challenges in Nigeria.

  • Obasanjo, group urge support for entrepreneurs

    Obasanjo, group urge support for entrepreneurs

    FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and a group, Entrepreneurs’ Organisation of Nigeria (EON), have called on the Federal Government to give more support to entrepreneurs to transform the economy.

    They spoke at this year’s edition of Leadership Insight and Experiences Seminar at the Green Legacy Resort, Abeokuta, Ogun State, which ended at the weekend.

    The call came against the background of declining oil prices, murky economic outlook and perceived policy inadequacies on investments.

    Obasanjo, who was speaker at the seminar, attributed the nation’s economic plight to failure on the part of the leadership, adding that the three factors responsible for effective and responsible management of the economy or any worthy institution “is leadership, leadership and leadership”.

    He said: “We are witnessing a downturn in the economy now because the leadership has failed in its responsibility to deliver factors that will encourage entrepreneurship.

    “If leadership is not okay, followership will be wrong and as they say in the military parlance, there is no bad soldier, but bad officers. So, the leadership must work to ensure the economy is well-managed, that there is social cohesion, that the expectations of the youths and business leaders are met while also pursuing policies, laws and regulations that ensure sustenance of any investment in the economy.

    He urged the entrepreneurs at the seminar not to be deterred by the myriad of challenges facing businesses, especially in Nigeria, but to always see the abundant opportunities waiting to be explored.

    the Education Chair of the entrepreneurs’ organisation, Lere Baale, said entrepreneurs, as calculated risk takers, need the support of government to provide an enabling environment conducive to encourage risk and ventures.

    “Political leaders drive economic direction through policies, laws and regulations that encourage investment and it is the responsibility of the leadership and government to provide this all important platform for economic growth and transformation,” Baale, who is the chief executive officer (CEO), Business School Netherlands, explained.

    He added that the EON, as the only peer-to-peer network of entrepreneurs in the country, was determined to inspire entrepreneurship through programmes developed to provide the tools and resources business leaders needed  to sustain themselves, especially with the nation’s harsh economic reality.

  • APC to Fayose: you can’t criticise Obasanjo on behalf of Ekiti people

    APC to Fayose: you can’t criticise Obasanjo on behalf of Ekiti people

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has advised Governor Ayo Fayose and his aides criticising former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to turn the internal affairs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into state affairs.

    In a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party said the governor and his aides were only speaking in their individual capacities or at best on behalf of their party.

    The government, last week, said Obasanjo should be jailed for alleged contempt of court for the launch and circulation of his latest autobiography, My Watch, over which a PDP chieftain Buruji Kashamu had gone to court.

    The party maintained that Fayose and his aides were not qualified to speak on behalf of Ekiti people “in a clearly political squabble by PDP gladiators”.

    Joining issues with the government on the author of the statement attacking Obasanjo, the APC said Owoseni Ajayi, who signed the statement was not known to law as the attorney-general as “he was not screened and confirmed by a properly constituted House of Assembly”.

    The party contended that Ajayi remained a commissioner-nominee until he is legally screened and confirmed by the Assembly in line with the dictates of the Standing Order of the House and the Constitution.

    The statement reads: “If we agree without conceding that he is an attorney-general, he is at best a busy body in the matter between Obasanjo and Buruji Kashamu concerning the launching of his book.

    “What is the business of a state government in a matter between Obasanjo and Kashamu that warranted issuing a statement on behalf of the entire citizens of a state?

    “The Ekiti APC dissociates the good people of Ekiti State from the statement by Ajayi calling for the imprisonment of Obasanjo for alleged contempt of court.

    “A bed-wetter does not haggle with a dry cleaner.  If anybody will criticise anyone for disobedience of court orders, it is not Ajayi who is a product of illegality and his principal a promoter of lawlessness.

    “It is an interesting irony that the people who represent an assault on the rule of law should be the ones accusing others of contempt of court. We respect elders in Ekiti. What Ajayi wrote of Obasanjo is not our collective view and we condemn it in strong terms.

    “The matter between Obasanjo and Kashamu, which is still pending at the Appeal Court, is better left to the judiciary to handle.

    “Ajayi and his principal cannot turn themselves to the interpreter of the law even though they are known to have an aversion for the rule of law.

    “Fayose should face the myriad of court cases on his neck. He should stop being a busy-body but face serious issues of governance, pay workers’ salaries and stop dabbling into matters that cannot bring development to Ekiti State.”

  • Obasanjo: Flawed memories, unending ego faults

    Obasanjo: Flawed memories, unending ego faults

    LOVE him. Hate him. Mathew Aremu Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo is not one that can be ignored. This former President and Nigeria’s longest serving leader is a newsmaker any day. The contents of his bag of mischief are inexhaustible. This selfacclaimed dogged fighter for Nigeria’s unity not only relishes a fecund courtship with controversy, he is, by all forms and shades, controversy personified. Even his occasional silence breeds the kind of tempestuous peace that pervades the graveyard. When he throws punches, his targets should expect nothing less than bareknuckled killer jabs. He is not one to spare his sparring partner neither does he have the patience to hearken to that nonsensical cant which forbids combatants to hit the below the belt. To him, all is fair in the battle for political martyrdom. All obstacles, or a semblance of it, must be pulled down. The man that many perceive as a Wily Old Fox, pseudo-scholar and the Unforgiving One would stop at nothing to project himself with a suspicious fragrance of integrity and exemplary leadership while he defines every other person as egocentric, corrupt, inept or unfit to occupy public office. Now that should not come as a surprise. With an ego seemingly larger than an entire nation and everyone in it, Obasanjo believes that Obasanjo knows it all. After all, those who have meticulously followed his trajectory would readily admit that Obasanjo sees himself as the best thing to have happened to Nigeria after God!

    Personally, Knucklehead would have been pleasantly startled if Obasanjo’s latest book on his 8-year stewardship as a democratically elected President had sneaked into our bookshelves, unheralded by the pettiness that goes with governance in this part of the world. That would have been ‘un-Obasanjoic’ in all sense of the word. In fact, those who vilify him for ignoring a Federal High Court’s injunction restraining him from publishing his three-part autobiography titled ‘My Watch’ miss the point. Even as a serving President, he once threatened to walk out of the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa-led Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission’s sitting, whimsically announcing that he was too big for any small lawyer (Femi Falana) to “put anything to me.” The date, I remember vividly, September 11, 2001—the day terror visited America in broad daylight. Obasanjo walked out of that panel and he never went back to testify. Since then, there have been scores of such orders and judgments by courts of competent jurisdiction that were either flagrantly disobeyed or completely ignored under Obasanjo’s watch. Therefore, Obasanjo was merely playing to his name by justifying the clear disobedience to constituted authority. But then, that is a minor issue.

    Of greater interest to this writer is the content of Obasanjo’s book. If newspapers reports were anything to go by, Obasanjo, as usual, condemns everybody but himself for everything that was wrong with the nation and his government. With the gloves off, he unleashes the deadliest attack on some personalities including his estranged deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his imposed successor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua and the ultimate beneficiary of the electoral heist supervised by the Obasanjo administration in 2007, President Goodluck Jonathan. Although I am yet to read the book, I would not be surprised if this man refuses to take responsibility for the role he played in ensuring that this nation remains one big joke, trapped in the endless web of a dream deferred. While this Nero was busy chasing ‘traitors’ to their homes and forcing them to resign their appointments, hardly did he realise that this burning Rome was borne out of the dire consequences of his petty fiddling. Now, the rotten legacy he bequeathed on the ever-suffering populace has come to haunt him and there is no way he can exculpate himself from this sickening madness of crying incompetence.

    How long would Obasanjo play the ostrich by ‘bombing’ his estranged godsons and political rivals? When will he step out and be counted as a true leader who, like every other human being, has his strong points, weaknesses and foibles? So, Atiku, his once-powerful deputy who had a firm grip of the nation’s economy during their first tenure, is a “blatant and shameless liar?” The late President Yar’Adua is an “ingrate” who tried to return Obasanjo’s gift of a presidential slot with an attempt to implicate him on corruption related offences. Likewise, without alluding to any evidence aside his gut feelings, it was Obasanjo’s belief that the former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is corrupt. If over 200 Chibok girls had not been abducted, I doubt if Obasanjo would have realised how incompetently clueless the man he foisted on Nigeria as Yar’Adua’s spare tyre and anointed successor, in the eventuality of death or incapacitation through health, has become. Now, he tells us that the same Jonathan he queued behind in the 2001 general election is not only inept but also ineffective, clueless, careless, insensitive and callous. So, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, one of Obasanjo’s favourite ministers and author of “The Accidental Public Servant,” is a brilliant character who is economically defective in saying the truth to the point that Obasanjo had to reveal how he had been making one of his guest houses available for a friend and a married missus? Hmnnn….the things these clowns in positions of authority do!

    Anyway, this is not about what Obasanjo said but more about those things that were, at the most, barely mentioned or completely left to our imaginations. Based on his grey-haired wisdom and a seeming determination to say it as it is, I would have expected the former Army General to tackle the issues raised about his own indiscretion within his family. At least we know quite a few touchy ones circulating out there. However, like the book’s reviewer, Mr. Patrick Okigbo, noted in his comments, it is amazing that Obasanjo characteristically dismisses “the more personal family scandals such as the allegations made by his first wife or daughter as personal issues that are being handled within the family.” I grunted when Okigbo criticised how this Oracle of Politics (apologies to Governor Aliyu Muazu of Niger State) “exonerates himself from any responsibility or blame for the failed leadership despite the fact that he was the principal architect of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidency that resulted in the current administration.”

    Okigbo would go on to ask this poignant question: “So, is Obasanjo a saint or a sinner? For me, Obasanjo is nowhere close to a saint even if I am the least qualified to tag him a sinner. No matter what he says in that book, available records indicate that he ran his government with vindictive gusto. For him, shooting down the enemy within and without is a vocation. This man, who rants endlessly about Jonathan’s inability to dissect the truth from the garbage of lies he is being fed with by the throng of “greedy hangers on or hungry lacklustre characters interested only in their mouths and their pockets”, is also guilty of a graver sin of ruthlessly hounding hangers-on who erred by telling him the truth he passionately abhors. It is laughable that he has chosen justify the sacking of Chief Audu Ogbeh as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party on an alleged close affinity with Atiku and a plot to embarrass his Presidency. Well, that could be his reading of events then. But, as a reporter in The Presidency at that time, I still recollect the celebrations that greeted Ogbeh’s exit. Then, it was an open secret even among Aso Rock cleaners that Ogbeh had to get the boot because of the discomfiting truth he detailed in a personal letter addressed to Obasanjo. The message was hard on the President and the despicable role he was playing in the humiliation of former Governor Chris Ngige by the Uba brothers? Question is When Obasanjo got Ogbeh’s letter, what did he do? Did he give Ogbeh a pat on the back for being man enough to caution him on the need to tread softly or did he visit Ogbeh’s house for an unplanned last supper after which he demanded and got a resignation letter?

    It is somewhat comical to read Obasanjo castigating Jonathan for lacking the capacity to pick “aides sufficiently imbued with the qualities and abilities to help him out.” It is benumbing that Obasanjo could voice his frustrations that most of the aides were too busy “manoeuvring and strategizing” on how Jonathan could realise his dream of second tenure in office such that it would be difficult for the revered statesman to “buy the idea of presidential innocence!” Can you just beat that? Obasanjo was expecting Jonathan to call his aides to order when he did nothing other than pleading innocence each time he was asked his take on the controversial, money-gulping tenure elongation agenda that was eventually quashed by the National Assembly! How many of his key aides did he punish for supporting and funding the Third Term Agenda when, as he once said, it was not part of the favour he sought from God then? Did he do anything to his close aides whom an erstwhile governor, Saminu Turaki claimed to have delivered billions of Naira for Baba’s Third Term project?

  • Contempt of court: Obasanjo serves notice of Appeal

    Contempt of court: Obasanjo serves notice of Appeal

    Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has appealed the Federal High Court’s ruling in Abuja ordering that his book, My Watch, be confiscated for disobeying an injunction restraining its publication.

    Obasanjo  faulted the manner the media reported the matter, adding that the impression that he was out to “dare, confront a judge or the judiciary,” was misleading.

    The former Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had last Tuesday attended the public presentation of the three-volume book, which a Southwest leader of the party, Prince Buruji Kashamu, had sought a legal action against some sections.

    The judge, Valentine Ashie, last Wednesday, ruled that irrespective of the public presentation, the former president erred by not obeying his order.

    But, Obasanjo, through his counsel, Gboyega Oyewole, filed an appeal challenging the confiscation order, declaring a 10 grounds of appeal.

    He said the judge erred in his ruling.

    In the suit marked CV/472/14, a copy which was made available to reporters in Abeokuta, the counsel reckoned that  the former president  was dissatisfied with the ruling of the high court and had appealed against it.

    According to the counsel, the grounds of appeal bordered on the belief that “the learned trial judge erred in law when he granted Interlocutory Orders of Injunction which inter alia restrained Obasanjo from the publication of his books  My Watch or the content of the letter to the President, which is the subject of the suit before the trial judge in the said book.”

     He stated that there was incontrovertible affidavit evidence that the defendant’s book had been published and released to the public before the making of the order.

    The lawyer argued: “the plaintiff never alluded to this fact in his affidavit before the court. It is settled law that an Injunction does not lie to restrain a completed act. His lordship failed and/or neglected to allude to the affidavit evidence before making the Interlocutory Order.

  • Court holds Obasanjo guilty of contempt over book

    Court holds Obasanjo guilty of contempt over book

    A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja yesterday held that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in contempt of court for flouting its orders restraining him from publishing his autobiography, “My Watch”.

    Justice Valentine Ashi, in a ruling, gave Obasanjo 21 days (from the day of service of the court’s orders on him) to show cause why he should not be punished for going ahead to publish  the book, in spite of the ex-parte interim order made by the court on December 5 and a pending libel involving him (Obasanjo).

    The judge restrained him from further publishing, printing or offering for sale, the book, My Watch, which content touches on the subject matter before the court.

    Justice Ashi had on December 5 granted ex-parte interim orders, restraining Obasanjo from proceeding with plans to publish the book or have it published for him. It fixed December 10 as the return date.

    Despite the court’s orders, Obasanjo presented the book on Tuesday in Lagos, arguing that it had been published before the court was misled into making the orders.

    Yesterday, the judge took arguments from lawyer to the plaintiff/applicant, Alex Iziyon (SAN), and the defendant/respondent’s lawyer, Realwon Okpanach, on the plaintiff’s motion for interlocutory injunctions, the defendant’s counter affidavit and motion for order to vacate the interim orders.

    Justice Ashi held that it was wrong for Obasanjo to have published the book despite the fact that a libel suit, which subject matter formed part of the content of the book, was pending before the court and that the orders he made on December 5 were still pending.

    He said it was immaterial that the book was published before the interim orders were made. Justice Ashi said Obasanjo ought not to have published the book because he was aware of the part-heard libel suit relating to the letter he wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Buruji Kashamu, of being a fugitive wanted in the United States.

    “The fact that the book was published in November is irrelevant. As long as the substantive suit is not yet determined, no party is entitled to publish or comment on material facts that are yet to be decided on by the court.

    “I hold the defendant, not only in contempt of the court, but to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt and ordered to undo what he has wrongly done.

    “The defendant, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo shall be given 21 days, from the day this order is served on him, to show cause, via affidavit, why he should not be punished for contempt committed by publishing and distributing for sale to the public, the book, My Watch, in plain disregard of the pendency of the substantive the suit and the order of this court made on December 5, 2014 restraining him from doing so.

    “The defendants, whether by himself, agents, servants, privies or whatever name called, is hereby restrained from further publication or offering for sale or distribution, in any way or manner, the book called My Watch or the like of the visual or written materials, which contain a re-publication or statement extracted from the letter referred to by the plaintiff,” the judge said.

    Justice Ashi also ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Director General of the Department of State Services (DG, DSS) and the Comptroller of Customs to recover the published book from all book stands, sales agents, vendors, the sea and airports and deposit them with the court’s registrar pending the determination of the substantive suit.”

    He ordered that the enrolled orders of the court be served on all media houses and be equally served on the defendant by publication in two national dailies.

    The judge rejected the defendant’s argument that the interim orders were wrongly made as the plaintiff failed to produce the book to show that it actually contained the alleged libellous materials.

    Justice Ashi held that since the plaintiff said he came to court on the fear that Obasanjo was to publish a book that touches on the issue already before the court, it was the duty of the defendant, in whose custody the material was, to show the court that the plaintiff’s fear was misplaced.

    “What I find difficult to understand is why the defendants went through the pains to depose to the ISBN number and other details about the book, which they said was published since November before the interim order was obtained on December 5, without supplying the court with copies of the book.

    “This would have served to disprove the claim by the applicant/plaintiff that the book contains a reproduction of the letter, which formed the subject of the libel case before the court.

    “The fact that the book was published in November while the substantive case was still pending is contemptuous enough,” the judge said.

    Justice Ashi said the Obasanjo’s failure to supply the book to convince the court that nothing relating to the subject of the pending libel case was contained in it (the book) suggested that he was hiding something.

    The judge is to hear the substantive suit expeditiously. He adjourned till January 13, next year.

    Kashamu on February 6 sued Obasanjo, accusing him of defaming him (Kashamu) in the former President’s December 2, 2013 letter to President Goodluck Jonathan titled: “Before it is too late”.

    The case was adjourned for Obasanjo to open his defence. But before he could open his defence, Kashamu went before the court on December 5, complaining that Obasanjo planned to publish a book with the December 2, 2013 letter forming part of the content. He sought an interim order restraining Obasanjo from publishing the book. The court granted the order and fixed December 10 for the hearing of another motion by Kashamu for interlocutory orders.

    Rather than come before the court to convince it to lift the interim orders, Obasanjo publicly presented the book on December 9 in Lagos.

    Reacting to the ruling, Obasanjo’s lawyer, Okpanach said his client will appeal it. He said the orders, which his client allegedly flouted, were made in error because the plaintiff failed to show, through material facts, that the letter formed the content of the book.

    “The orders made cannot be enforced. They want the court to stop an act that has been concluded. That is impossible. We had published the book in November, they came before the court in December and asked that the publishing should be stopped. Is that possible?

    “We shall file our appeal within the stipulated time of 14 days in the case of interlocutory orders,” Okpanachi said.

  • Fayose to PDP: suspend Obasanjo now

    Fayose to PDP: suspend Obasanjo now

    Governor  Ayo Fayose of  Ekiti State yesterday launched a fresh attack on former President Olusegun Obasanjo for  alleged anti -party activities.

    The governor asked the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to probe the former  president and suspend him for his persistent criticism of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Fayose told reporters in Ado Ekiti,a day after five of his fellow PDP governors visited Obasanjo in Abeokuta  ostensibly to woo him to support President Jonathan’s second term bid, that Obasanjo does not deserve that kind of attention.

    He dismissed the governors’ visit as unwarranted,  unnecessary and uncalled for as Obasajo,in his opinion,is working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 elections.

    PDP, he declared,should  stop condoning indiscipline, saying; “nobody should be treated as being bigger than the party.”

    He argued that by begging Obasanjo, the PDP governors were unwittingly encouraging other party members to openly disrespect the office of the President.

     “A man who has refused to respect the office of the President of Nigeria that he once occupied does not also deserve respect from anyone,” he said.

    The governor, who also lambasted the former President at last week’s summit of Yoruba leaders in Ile Ife,Osun State, said: “Have you ever heard a former President of the United States of America (USA) openly abusing a sitting President of the country?

    “Does it mean that former USA President, Bill Clinton, agreed with all the policies of George W. Bush and the incumbent president, Barack Obama?

    “Obasanjo is behaving unpresidentially and he must be told to respect himself.

     “Obasanjo is a man who can never be pleased.  His principle of life is: if it is not his way, it must not be another person’s way.

    “Even if President Jonathan gives Obasanjo his blood today, he (Obasanjo) cannot change  because he is already neckdeep in the APC agenda, with his eyes on the vice presidential ticket of the party.

    “Therefore, no amount of visits by PDP governors can make him change his mind about President Jonathan   whom he hates not because he has not performed, but because he (Jonathan) did not hand over his presidency to him.”

  • Five PDP governors beg Obasanjo

    Five PDP governors beg Obasanjo

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has renewed its appeal to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to return to the mainstream of the ruling party.

    Five governors, led by PDP Governors’ Forum Chairman Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, met yesterday with the former President at his Hiltop residence in Abeokuta. The meeting lasted for more than three hours.

    Obasanjo, who has been stridently critical of the Jonathan administration is seen by many in the ruling party as angry over the state of affairs. He is also believed to be romancing the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), whose leaders have been meeting with him.

    Akpabio said they were in Abeokuta “to consult” with Obasanjo.

    Sources said the meeting dwelt on how the party would bring the former president on board its 2015 train. Obasanjo’s grouse with the party was believed to have been discussed at the meeting.

    The other governors who visited the ex-president yesterday are: Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Babangida Aliu (Niger).

    They arrived at Obasanjo’s expansive compound at about 12:30pm and went into the meeting after which  Obasanjo described his guests as “colleagues and brothers” who decided to pay him a special visit.

    He said his pronouncements on the state of the nation and the economy were not meant to “bad mouth or pull down anybody”, but steps taken out of genuine concern for the country.

    According to him, he discussed with the governors security and state of the nation.

    The former President said the parlous state of the economy, especially the drop in the price of oil and the likely adverse effects, is not new but a phenomenon he tackled while in office.

    Obasanjo also said the situation of the country’s economy though bad, does not require an “oracle” or being a “World Bank expert” to establish the truth. Obasanjo said if the “political will and courage” are demonstrated, the gloomy picture could be salvaged.

    The situation is “not irretrievably bad if there is the will and courage to do the right thing at the right time”.

    He recalled that during his time in office, oil price dropped and the government’s appropriation (budget) for the year could not be financed.

    He noted that the government weathered the storm because practical measures were taken.

    Obasanjo said: “They (the governors) were concerned about what you may call the situation of the nation, security, economy. We have discussed most of them.  I have raised in my own public pronouncement in recent times not to castigate anybody, not to bad-mouth anybody, not to run anybody down, but out of genuine concern for the situation of this country and that is the same thing that has brought them and I want to thank them.

    “When we look at these issues closely, very objectively and we came to the conclusion that yes we have a bad situation but not irretrievably bad. Something can still be done and what now is required is the will and the courage to do something when and how it needs to be done.

    “We agreed on that and we also agreed that I appreciate their coming to me because of the respect and honour they have for me, this task is not for one man and it is not even a task for one group; it is a task that requires all hands on deck and as they have said and as they have assured me that this type of consultation, they would have with other leaders so that this country, which is ours and for which we have no alternatives…

    “The other day, somebody told me he knows NADECO route. I do not want to follow NADECO (route). It is incumbent on us to do what is right.

    “They (governors) are colleagues with whom I have worked together; they will like to call themselves my sons, when you have a son like Sule Lamido, who is almost a foot taller than yourself, you must watch what you would say and do.”

    Asked if he was not scared about the situation of the nation’s economy with the fallen oil price, Obasanjo said: “I am never scared by anything, but I am concerned that firstly, when we had surplus, we did not remember the rainy day. Now that the rainy day is staring us in the face, we must be honest and courageous enough to do what is right, to let the nation know and then to take the steps that will put it right as quick as possible.

     ”You do not need to be an oracle or a World Bank expert or an International Monetary Fund expert to know that our economy is not what it should be and this is not the first time we would hear it.

    “We have heard it in the past when of course I came in 1999, the price of oil was about $9 and we realised that we have a problem, we even made budget that we could not fund but we realised that we are in a serious situation and we took steps, within two to three years, we were able to sail through, the price of oil started moving up.

    “Do not forget that there was a time during the Iraqi war, price of oil rose to $42 and then it came down to $9. The one that we have now, we do not know when it would bottom and at what price it would bottom but we can weather the storm if we take measures that we should take and when to take it.”

    Akpabio, who agreed with Obasanjo that the Nigerian situation is redeemable, said the former President had been playing national and international roles, hence the need for the PDP governors to consult him.

    Akpabio said: “Our dear leader and former president and a man that all Nigerians love and respect, if you notice, we are from the PDP extraction and we have decided that as the party in power and the party that the country has a lot of confidence in right from 1999, he played a key role in the emergence of the current democracy.

     ”He is still playing both nationally and internationally, so, we decided that it is important for us to come and consult with him as he said, pay our respects, discuss the affairs of the nation and then to tap from his wealth of wisdom.

    “The intention here is that all Nigerians are determined to re-position the country. We have no other country than Nigeria and so, no matter the challenges we may face today, we must work together as a team to redeem the situation.

    The situation is redeemable and that we must also consult other leaders and work to ensure that the country is redeemed.”

    Aliyu said salvaging the country and its economy is a collective responsibility of all Nigerians.

    “We have come to consult with the oracle of leadership and politics of this country and we have benefited tremendously with our coming. You have heard him say we need also to consult with other people because all of us must come together.

    “The issue of Nigeria is beyond partisanship. We must tell all Nigerians to rally together and let us put our nation in the right place.”

  • Akpabio, Yuguda, other PDP governors in secret meeting with Obasanjo

    Akpabio, Yuguda, other PDP governors in secret meeting with Obasanjo

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors on Thursday afternoon stormed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s residence, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, in over a dozen vehicle convoy.

    The governors, who arrived Obasanjo’s mansion on Presidential Hill -Top Estate at exactly 12:40pm, quickly went into secret meeting with their host who had been waiting for them.

    Although the names of the governors on the visit or their numbers could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, it was discovered that the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, is in the entourage by virtues of the number plates seen on the governor’s escort vehicles. The vehicles bear the state’s marks.

    Other governors believed on the trip to the former president’s home are that of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke and his Bauchi State counterpart, Isa Yuguda.

    Our correspondent gathered that Niger State governor, Babangida Aliu, is also at  the meeting.

    The purpose of the meeting, according to sources close to the governors may not be unconnected with the frosty relation between Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The meeting is still ongoing.

  • The Obasanjo- Jonathan spat

    The Obasanjo- Jonathan spat

    WHEN the Balogun Owu chooses to speak, he uses his words as weapons of war. Perhaps to remind his audience that he retired from the Army a Major General, he gives newsmen something to take away and probably celebrate. So it was that he criticized the bungling Jonathan administration. He depicted the President as a do-nothing leader. And, realizing that another general election is around the corner, the President’s men felt compelled to respond. And thus they made the most outlandish claim anyone could- Jonathan is the best President Nigeria has ever had.

    Again, Obasanjo felt compelled to hit back. He described the administration as corrupt and inept, warning that the country was headed for the doldrums. In truth, as usual, Obasanjo spoke the truth the way most others could not have. He hit the President hard and gave a clear signal that despite entreaties, he would not support the return of Jonathan as Nigeria’s President.

    The problem with Obasanjo is not what he says, but what he did. While Jonathan is indeed the worst leader in the country, and his claim to being the best is infuriating, Obasanjo lacks the moral eight to denounce the administration. He is the reason we have a Jonathan as President today. He singlehanded imposed the duo of Umaru Yar’adua and Jonathan in 2007, knowing full well that Yar’Adua was afflicted with a terminal disease. It is difficult to believe that a former president who knows the frenetic pace at which the Head of the Nigerian State has to work would fetch a man in poor condition of health for the task. That later paved the way for a Jonathan Presidency and its dire consequences.

    Both men lack the moral right to teach us probity and good governance. OBJ’s eight years set the stage for the classical ineptitude that has set the country back. All Obasanjo has to show for the war against corruption was establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission. He chpse, however, to use the commissions as battle axes to subdue political foes. His loyalists were shielded from prosecution. The former President chose the health sector as one to turn around. He identified six teaching hospitals to be upgraded to centres of excellence. We are all living witnesses to the success he recorded. Today more Nigerians head for hospitals in India, South Africa, Egypt and the West for diseases that have become common. Where did the billions go?

    On education, as it was under Obasanjo, so it is today. We remember that the universities had to be locked up for about six months under the supervision of both men. While OBJ was guilty of believing he knew it all. Jonathan concentrates only on the power game. And in doing so, he would not spare any weapon- religion, ethnicity and public fund.

    Dr. Jonathan might be suitable for the classrooms where dour conduct might count for nothing; where charisma may not be a requirement for excellence. But, in the rough political terrain, charisma counts. The President is the leader; he is expected to be a motivator. He must be a visioner; one who could lead a tottering ship to the shore.

    , Jonathan is not the man. He can neither assemble a good team nor could he give hope to the poor and needy. While he reminds us of his humble beginning, he lacks the empathy needed to wipe tears from faces of the deprived. Is OBJ Jonathan’s nemesis? Is the former President trying to atone for his sin against Nigeria in foisting the Jonathan government on the country? Is the situation redeemable given the huge powers available to a Nigerian President constitutionally and extra-constitutionally?

    We have another opportunity to change the situation with our country. The 2015 general election has offered us a chance to review development in the country since 1999. It is a plebiscite on the performance of the Peoples Democratic Party’s governments in the past 16 years. If the electorate, by acts of omission or commission, choose to renew President Jonathan’s residency in Aso Villa, they would have made a conscious choice.

    It could be argued that neither of the two major political parties is better than the other. But, at least it could be said that one was established mainly by men who have been out of power for so long. If the APC manages to climb the dais, it would be victory to democracy whose major feature is affording the people a choice. It would demonstrate that Nigerians could indeed handle regime change. It would serve notice that any party deemed to have performed poorly could be locked out of the power house.

    A vote for another four years for Jonathan would be a vote for cluelessness. The simplest things are being handled wrongly. Rather than move towards light, we are headed for pitch darkness is we keep moving in the same direction. We have a choice. We have the power. Indeed, the choice is ours.