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Tag: Obasanjo

Unease in Jonathan’s camp over Obasanjo

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s disclosure that President Goodluck Jonathan promised to spend only one term in office has ignited a fresh anxiety in the President’s camp.

There are fears that Obasanjo’s comments may be a pointer to a major coalition against Dr Jonathan’s second term bid, which is well known, but yet to be announced.

But a key strategist of the President said that Obasanjo “cannot intimidate Jonathan out of second term race”.

According to Bloomberg, Obasanjo stirred the hornet’s nest on Tuesday in London in an interview in which he confirmed that Jonathan asked for one term in office.

Bloomberg quoted Obasanjo as saying: “President Jonathan said, not only once, twice, publicly, not only inside Nigeria, outside Nigeria, that he would have one term, and said that to me.

“One of the things that is very important in the life of any man or any person is that he will be a man or a person of his word.

“If you decide your word should not be taken seriously, that’s entirely up to you.”

Obasanjo’s disclosure caused some disquiet in the camp of the President, leading to a review meeting in Abuja on Wednesday night.

It was learnt that at the session, it was suspected that Obasanjo might be out for a spoiler’s game in 2015, with a target of pitching Nigerians against the President.

Those at the meeting also claimed that the ex-President’s comments had confirmed rumours that he has sympathy for the opposition.

The meeting reached a consensus on how to checkmate any plans by the ex-President to frustrate Jonathan’s second term bid.

The counter-plans against Obasanjo are as follows:

•ignore his tirades unless they threaten national security;

•address only issues and not personality

•sustain the ongoing reconciliation in PDP and consolidate gains made by the party;

•Jonathan should continue to pursue his right to second term in office – in line with the laws of the land and the guidelines released by INEC; and

•leave the electorate to determine the fate of Jonathan in 2015.

A presidency source said: “We have agreed not to dignify Obasanjo with a response because he is not saying anything new. What should be the concern of all is the position of the 1999 Constitution on second term in office, which the President is entitled to.

“Hearsay is not the same as the clear provision of the law of the land. The London comments have left many gaps: where did the President make the so-called pledge? Under what circumstance? Hasn’t the President clarified that he did not say in Ethiopia that he would spend only a term in office? Let Obasanjo provide more details.

“A governor once spoke of a one-term agreement entered into by the President with PDP governors. But up till today, the same governor cannot produce a copy of the said agreement.

“They keep on revisiting this one-term thing to scare the President out of the race. That is a miscalculation on their part.”

Also, a Strategist to the President said: “There is no way Obasanjo can intimidate the President out of the second term race. It is only the electorate that can determine the fate of Jonathan in 2015.

“We are not losing sleep over Obasanjo’s comments because the former President has boxed himself into a corner politically. The interview in London appears to be a sign of a likely gang-up against the President. But we are up to the task.

“The Presidency has always suspected that the ex-President might have backed some of these governors that defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) only for him to remain in PDP.

“We cannot actually place what Obasanjo wants. President Jonathan has, however, said he would not take any action against Obasanjo in terms of arrest or prosecution. As for politics, we will all meet on the field.”

February 14, 2014
Obasanjo, Buhari, Amaechi shun Council of State meeting

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former head of state, Gen. Muhammad Buhari and Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi were conspicuously absent at Tuesday’s Council of State meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Tuesday’s meeting was attended by the former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, former president Shehu Shagari, former heads of state, Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalam Abubakar and former Head of the Interim National Government, Ernest Shonekan.

The Vice President, Namadi Sambo, Senate President, David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim and former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Muhammad Uwais also attended the meeting.

Governors that attended the meeting are – Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Sule Lamido (Jigawa).

Others are – Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Liyel Imoke (Cross Rivers), Dickson Seriake (Bayelsa), Peter Obi (Anambra), Theodor Orji (Abia), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom)and Babangida Aliyu (Niger).

Also at the Council of State meeting are – Yari Abdulaziz (Zamfara), Martin Elechi (Ebonyi), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo) and Idris Wada (Kogi).

The deputy governors at the meeting are that of Kano, Plateau and Borno States.

But there was a mild drama before the meeting started and this centered on the sitting arrangement of two governors.

Because of the ‘A’ alphabet starting with their state names, Abia Governor, Orji (Peoples Democratic Party), Adamawa Governor, Nyako (All Progressives Congress) and Akwa Ibom, Akpabio (PDP) had to sit together.

Before the meeting started, Nyako told Orji that he was not comfortable sitting with him as he could poison him.

Nyako said: “I am telling you don’t poison me here. I am not comfortable with you here. If anything happens to me here, walahi, my people will take you to court.”

Orji replied: “For how many years have we been sitting together? Is it this zero hour that I would poison you?

Nyako countered: “Who knows?”

Turning to Martins Elechi, who joined them during the exchange, Nyako said: “I am just warning him not to poison me. Is there any law that says we should sit down together?

February 4, 2014
2015: Obasanjo calls for prayers

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday called on religious leaders to pray and fast for Nigeria ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Obasanjo made the call when he received the National President of the Pentecostal Federation of Nigeria (PFN), Rev. Felix Omobhude, at his Hilltop mansion in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He described Nigeria as God’s project, adding: “it is only God that appoints leaders for a country, notwithstanding the political scheming and campaign promises of politicians.

Obasanjo described himself as an incurable optimist of the Nigeria nation and expressed the belief that the country would rank among the best nations of the world in no distant future.

The elder statesman, however, stressed that leadership was pivotal to such a transition.

Obasanjo recalled that Nigeria had passed through and surmounted difficult periods by the help of God, and “the same God is able to help us again.”

He, therefore, urged clerics throughout the nation to pray to God over the choice of a leader for Nigeria.

“I always say that I am an incurable optimist about this country.

“If there is anything that I will ask of you, it is that you and other clerics should never stop fasting and praying for Nigeria.

“My short span of life has seen a few unexpected things in this country when we thought that the end would just happen, but God made us to scale through,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the ex-president as saying at the forum.

Responding, Omobhude described Obasanjo as a special treasure to Nigeria, who would continue to be relevant in every affair of the country.

The PFN president assured that the federation would not fail in its calling to pray for the peace, unity and progress of Nigeria.

He noted that one of the major duties of clerics was to pray for the leaders of their countries.

January 15, 2014
Comments

For Olatunji Dare

Jonathan’s nickname is Mr. Promise and Fail, and Mr. Incapacitated. When APC called him kindergarten president everybody was throwing abusive words at its leaders but now they are vindicated. A man who promised to send generators in Nigeria on exile is still battling with power supply in the country. May be he needs minister of generator to do so. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

Dare, if Jonathan promised an all time power supply, which to a discerning mind, was a mere projection, and in two years provided half a day’s from the moribund level he acquired from preceeding government, should he not be commended in place of condemnation, though in subtle manner? You even called him a liar whose words could not be taken in its clout. Who is that Nigerian who was unaware of the fact that successive governments had been vaccillating on privatisation of the refineries over the years; for you to capitalise on disparity on status quo on the issue between Petroleum Minister and Jonathan, whose position might have been arrived at shortly after the minister had stated the prevailing situation at her public address abroad? The humanisation of high office by holders, including Obasanjo, had no unusualness but Jonathan’s. Ha! Dare, even you? God, when will these end? From Lai Ashadele

For Segun Gbadegesin

Re: Centennial of greed (2). A remote cause was possibly the need to enlarge recruitment field for world war. The hurry was so much that it was federation. It should have been confederation leading to agreement to federate. We would have been saved all the power struggles that have been the bane of our economic community so necessary amongst all zones of Nigeria. Noteworthy for centennary review. From Ita Ekpott, Uyo

The skewed federalism creates the belief in some quarters that Nigeria belongs to them. How do we handle the ‘born to rule’ idea in some persons? All British federal creation with our kind of incongruities have dissolved quietly. South Sudan is not a good example. They need further division. From Uche Lawson, Aba

Re: Centennial of greed(2). It was a wonderful piece, more power to your elbow. ‘…nook and cranny not ‘nooks and crannies’, take note. From Ayo Joseph, Ikeja Lagos

A visit to UI Advancement Centre/Office of PRO, UI Ibadan will reveal a hill of dirty flags of many countries flying at half mast. It is real insult to those nations. It will also be noted that the flag of Nigeria is nowhere to be found among the flags. Evidently, those manning the UI Advancement Centre are unpatriotic people. The centre is UI Destroying Centre which is hostile to education transformation in Nigeria. From Prof. Akesinro K. S.

Re: Centennial of greed(2). Let us assume ‘the knife had already cut the Youth’s finger’! Dropping it is not the solution. Since Lugard had executed own agendum of amalgamation, what are we doing as the amalgamated to grow, unite and develop rapidly? Why are others not talking about Ibo presidency for continued unity and true oneness? And no one, including Nigerian journalists talks about 2015 Presidency as Ibo’s turn? Why? I am a Yoruba man. Amalgamation is gone and dead! Why the fume about it. Ghana has its history and South Africa has its in own different way(s). Yet they had trudged on. State Police is irrelevant if dishonesty continues, corruption continues and greed by the so-called leaders people claim to be our leading lights! When a state police system emerges, whom will they guide and guard? The populace? No. From Lanre Oseni

For Gbenga Omotoso

How I wish Dr. Goodluck Jonathan just swallow, regurgitate and ruminate on this counsel, his battles, of course, would be half won before 2015 but his advisers will tell him ‘be a hard man this is Nigeria where anything is possible.’ From Udie

Mikel is, all the way, the African Footballer of the Year. Anonymous

South-south votes, lgbo votes with its significant national spread and larger Middle belt support will no doubt help secure for Goodluck Jonathan the needed popular vote to lead in 2015, should he decide to exercise his second term right. Bless you sir. From Animanjor David

Mikel deserves to be the best African Footballer of the Year. From Prince Ajiboye, Emure-Ekiti

Mikel deserves it. Whenever he is on the pitch with Yaya Toure either in the Nigerian jersey or Chelsea colour-jersey, he always outclasses Yaya. We wish him the best. From Jonah Bakut, Kaduna

The answers to some questions in the country asked by Omotoso lie in the presidency. If the president tackles corruption, impunity, insecurity, armed robbery, then he has answered some questions. The president does not understand the meaning of his office, he embarrasses his office which is very shameful to all Nigerians. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

For Tunji Adegboyega

Re: 2014 Agenda for Jonathan. I demand a retraction from you that “if Jonathan thinks he can go far with this high rate of corruption, he is wasting his time”. You are pained though. As the country keeps bleeding, Mr. President remains our president and needs to be addressed kindly. Corruption is a cankerworm and needs to be’ crushed and killed’ at all levels and sectors. I agree with you that corruption is at the root of all ills plaguing Nigeria. Mr. President should remember that the buck of corruption effects stops at his table. Hence, he must deal with it headlong. From Lanre Oseni.

Whoever thinks President Jonathan will be thinking on how to fight corruption should think twice. A man who has nicknamed his government corruption cannot fight corruption rather; it is corruption that is fighting him. The government has a ‘ministry of corruption’ with many cabinet members running and the president himself supervising it to avoid it from disintegrating. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

2014: Agenda for Jonathan. I quite appreciate your admonition of Mr. President on the need to seriously fight corruption. We are where we now found ourselves, in the hands of neophytes in the saddle of jobs they neither prepared for nor possessed the intellect, competence or strength of character to undertake. The impact of docility on the part of any leader from whom much is expected can only be made good by the electorate who have the sovereignty to vote such inept leader out in a free, fair and credible election. Can Jonathan allow this to happen? Your guess is as right as mine. But not with his body language and the myriad of impunity taking firm roots in the system. From Abiodun AISPI, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

In spite of what the international community and Transparency International are lamenting about corruption in Nigeria, our President is yet to take proactive action on it. Daily, we lay emphasis on how to move the country forward, in spite of the fact that corruption and other social vices have become the order of the day. Anonymous

‘Yes, the office can only be as exalted as the occupier wants it to be’. You could not have put it better! I am simply amazed that the President remains unruffled by all the ills going on around him. Is this pretence or a true lack of discerning ability? Is he aware that his speeches on issues do not match his actions on them? Is it that his handlers are deliberately goading him on to his downfall out of their own frustration at not being able to convince him to act right? How else do we rationalise the attack team of Abati, Gulak and Okupe whose reactions to criticisms win more enemies than friends for the President ! A President would not have procrastinated over Ms Oduah’s case – not with the added issue of her MBA qualification. Haba! What else can we do to move this President to act speedily as he did when he sacked his honest and efficient former Power Minister? Anonymous.

January 15, 2014
Jonathan and the letter to Obasanjo

If the president’s uninspiring response to the weighty issues his godfather had raised in his December 2, 18-page letter about the shortcomings of his administration was all the committee he appointed to draft a reply came up with, the president should consider that as a betrayal. They have done great injustice to the president as a statesman either due to incompetence or because they are self-serving sycophants that have succeeded in capturing the president as alleged by Obasanjo.

In any case, if moaning, name-calling and bellyaching were the answers to the issues ex-President Obasanjo had identified, what many of us have said of Obasanjo and his brand of politics would have been sufficient. In this regard, help for the presidency even came from an unlikely quarters, Iyabo Obasanjo, the ex-president beloved daughter. Her alleged letter to his father which our peerless columnist Olatunji Dare says “is perfuse with contempt, ridicule, scorn, and loathing abhorrence of the most visceral kind”, inflicted more damage to her father’s reputation than Jonathan’s abuses could have ever achieved.

Just as we have said of Obasanjo who calls himself ‘Mr. Nigeria’, who Jonathan, his godson has since reminded us does not own Nigeria, of trying to define his baleful legacies including imposition of Jonathan on Nigeria, it is also obvious Jonathan was motivated only by concern for survival and his legacies and not about Nigerians. This came out clearly from the tenth reason he advanced for responding to his godfather’s letter. “The tenth and final reason why my reply is inevitable”, he says, “is that you have written similar letters and made public comments in reference to all former Presidents and Heads of Government starting from Alhaji Shehu Shagari and these have instigated different actions and reactions. The purpose and direction of your letter is distinctly ominous…” Consequently, nearly everything the president says in his letter is about his own survival and legacies which he like his godfather erroneously thinks he can define.

Thus, on Obasanjo’s appeal that the president as the leader of PDP takes some measures to prevent the imminent collapse of the party, Jonathan says he is a better PDP leader than Obasanjo backing his position with a long list of PDP founding fathers he rightly claimed Obasanjo frustrated out of PDP.

On corruption that has become a source of embarrassment to even friends of Nigeria including the late revered Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and Britain’s Cameron, he says to Obasanjo,: ‘You will recall that your kinsman, the renowned afro-beat maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti famously sang about it during your first stint as Head of State. Even in this Fourth Republic, the Siemens and Halliburton scandals are well known. And for a good effect, he added ‘sons of some of our party leaders are currently facing trial for their involvement in the celebrated subsidy scam affair. I can hardly be blamed if the wheels of justice still grind very slowly in our country’.

On kidnapping and armed robbery, President Jonathan shot back “it is just as well to remind you that the first major case of kidnapping for ransom took place around 2006. And the Boko Haram crisis dates back to 2002. Goodluck Jonathan was not the President of the country then. Also, armed robbery started in this country immediately after the civil war and since then, it has been’.

In response to what he described as the most ‘invidious allegation of training snipers to assassinate political opponents’, he said: ‘I have never been associated with any form of political violence. There have certainly been cases of political assassination since the advent of our Fourth Republic, but as you well know, none of them occurred under my leadership.’

On the president’s alleged undertaking to serve for six years; he turned the heat on his godfather accusing him of a resolve to ‘embark on a virulent campaign to harass (him) out of an undeclared candidature for the 2015 presidential elections so as to pave the way for a successor anointed by Obasanjo.’

The first nine other reasons the president gave as justification for responding to Obasanjo were equally all about Jonathan: three un investigated assassination attempts on his life in 2007, his administration better score card in foreign relations compared to Obasanjo’s; his administration’s attraction of $25.7 billion FDI in just three years compared to Obasanjo’s $24.9 billion in seven years, and his creation of level playing ground for Labour in Ondo and APGA in Anambra governorship elections unlike Obasanjo who favoured some PDP candidates (short of admitting Obasanjo had rigged for PDP candidates in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun).

Many Nigerians must have felt diminished by President Jonathan’s letter. Jonathan was already our vice president when Obama became American President. Obama inherited a deeply divided and disillusioned American society facing two wars and saddled with $16 trillion foreign debt. When his aides started moaning and bellyaching about the legacies of Republicans and their half-educated President George Bush jnr., Obama coolly admonished them insisting American voters elected him to solve those problems. In other words he wouldn’t have been elected president if those challenges were not there.

But let us for a moment even concede it to the president that he is overwhelmed by challenges of his office, a domestic insurrection by Boko Haram, punctured and leaking PDP family umbrella that once provided sanctuary for all manners of characters from which some elected PDP governors and legislators have since escaped seeking refuge under APC, crisis in his home Bayelsa and Rivers fuelled by Nyesom Wike, supervising minister of education who swears by the name of the president’s wife, kleptomaniac ministers, etc, but what can we say of belligerent and combative advisers, paid through the public purse to protect the president but chose moaning and name-calling as answers to daunting issues merely echoed by Obasanjo?

Nigerians are not amused that the president chose to agonise over the un-investigated assassinations attempts on his life back in 2007 when he was a governor and vice presidential candidate. What Nigerian expected of the president who has been in power for close to five years was to have revisited not only the attempt on his life but other high profile assassination of his PDP family members like Marshall Harry, Aminasoari Dikibo, Funsho Williams, and others like Chief Alfred Rewane, and Bola Ige, an attorney general killed in his house under the nose of those detailed to protect him. Does a crime cease being a crime because there is a change of guard at the presidency? Once again, Nigerians are not asking the president and his advisers to invent the wheel. They can take a cue from Barack Obama’s five year crusade against American Congress over the battle to allow the 558 detainees in Guantanamo Bay detention Camp in Cuba face criminal charges in American courts or repatriated back to their respective countries.

Nigerians feel insulted by President Jonathan’s advisers’ trivialization of problem of corruption by making reference to Obasanjo’s kinsman singing about corruption during Obasanjo’s first coming as Head of State. Instead of addressing the serious issues of corruption, it amounts to bringing governance to kindergarten level as alleged by Chief Bisi Akande, the APC interim chairman. The president must not be deceived by his self-serving advisers. Nigerians are angry about Jonathan’s lack of political will to fight corruption as alleged by the speaker of the lower house. Nigerians are angry he has laid a bad precedent by pardoning convicted Diepreye Alamieyeseigha who is also wanted for money laundering in Britain. Nigerians feel insulted and taken for granted by Jonathan’s silence on ‘Oduahgate’ after a House Committee’s indictment.

Nigerians want their God-fearing president who was given a landslide victory in 2011 because they trusted him, to revisit the KPMG report on NNPC, the Ribadu report on fuel subsidy theft and the House Committee Report on fuel subsidy scandal. Our jobless youths whose future is being mortgaged want the president who was once a ‘shoeless’ youth, to revisit the House Committee Report on Privatization that recommended some of the companies given away to cronies at next to nothing, be taken back by the state so as to create job opportunities for some of our army of unemployed.

January 2, 2014
Haba! If you Sanjo me, I will Ebele you!

SIR: When Gerald Ford was President of the United States, an incident occurred that is of particular relevance in this instance of the present imbroglio between Presidents Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. President Ford’s 18-year-old daughter was quoted‘ as having said, with reference to an issue that was the talk of the nation then, that “the president was stupid.”

Excitedly, journalists rushed to the White House where a cornered President Ford was asked bluntly by a reporter; “Mr. President, your daughter said you are stupid. Any comments?” President Ford’s response, paraphrased, went something like this. “You know what you just said is not true. I have seen the clip of my daughter’s comments. What she said was “the president was stupid,” and I am very proud of the fact that by saying that she has exercised her rights as an American citizen to criticize the American president not minding the fact that the president is her father. How many 18 year-old American citizens say worse things about the president daily around the country without remorse? If she had said “my father was stupid,” then, I will do what I need to do as her father.”

Americans responded to his answer with acclamations and kudos. He was hailed for upholding the tenets of the oath he took at his inauguration; to defend and uphold the American Constitution and the rights of American citizens!

I am sure that President Jonathan took an oath that is similar, in intent if not practice, to the oath taken by any American president, even any president, at inauguration. So, why the pugilistic exchange of” blows” and “counter-blows” between an incumbent president and a former one, who, for all intents and purposes, was, in my estimation, simply exercising his rights as an ordinary Nigerian? Does Mr. President read the newspapers daily where allegations worse than President Obasanjo’s comments and allegations feature regularly?

Fellow Nigerians, writing scathing criticisms of a president, calling presidents names unfit for dogs and pets, and peddling innuendoes about a president’s penchant for doing the incredible, and so on, are issues of fundamental rights of citizens around the world; the much ballyhooed and acclaimed “dividends of democracy.” Both Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan know this for a fact. No one would deny or prevent President Obasanjo from his opportunity to enjoy his rights as a Nigerian citizen.

Donald Trump writes full page letters to the American president regularly. Former American presidents also communicate with the incumbent president on regular basis through the pages of newspapers. Incumbent presidents never respond. So, why is the presidency in Abuja so bent out of shape?

In the wisdom of African folklore, when two elephants make love, the ground suffers. When they fight, the ground suffers too! So, it does not matter what two elephants do to one another; it is the ground that will suffer. Unfortunately, the ground that is suffering is Nigeria!

When, in 2011, at the Eagle Square PDP Convention, President Obasanjo stood at the head of the chorus of PDP’s members, urging them to follow him as Jonathan was anointed PDP presidential flag bearer in the 2011 elections, Nigerians suffered. Today, in 2013, as arrangements are being put in place for the selection of PDP’s flag bearer for the 2015 elections, Nigeria is still suffering!

The country’s issues and sufferings would never be addressed by the kinds of political ping-pong being played by its present and/or former leaders.” If you Sanjo me, I will Ebele you,” is definitely not the way to go.

• Angelicus-M. Onasanya

Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

January 1, 2014
Comment

For Olatunji Dare

I thoroughly enjoyed reading “The Mandela Files”. Please give us a book on it. From Gbenga Demola-Ojo

Please sir, I want a prompt reply however short it may be. Is it true that the Nigeria’s position against apartheid was one of the reasons Murtala Muhammed was killed? Anonymous

Buhari, you are the Mandela of our time, save our nation, we love our country Nigeria, our country is greater than any of her citizen, do your best. Lord will support you with good health, long life and all you need to get there. Long live Buhari! Anonymous

All these problems encountering in our ‘Great Country’ will not do us any good, especially our great and bright future. Anonymous

Re: The Mandela files (3): Encounters. All the moments in your three series showed late Mandela to be unruffled not even when freedom plan was not in De Klerk’s plan, five years after the Eminent Persons Group as at 1990. Mandela is a troubadour-traverse taught us one thing ‘COURAGE’ in whatever hard, tough and or harsh circumstance(s) one finds oneself. May his soul rest in peace. From Lanre Oseni

For Gbenga Omotoso

Letter writing should not be the focus but the issues in the letters. Anonymous

Take it or leave it, Obasanjo is a master, Jonathan has been floored. He will keep sprawling and staggering in confusion, making more mistakes. That punch sure hit target. From Henny, Awka

Sir, corruption was more rife under Obasanjo than it is now. If you want me to text to you some corrupt practices under Obasanjo as reported by newspaper headlines, I will do so and you see that they are mind boggling. Some past news headlines reported: 1. EFCC begins probe of Obasanjo 2. Quiet probe of OBJ begins 3. Obasanjo spent 1.2 trillion naira excess crude oil money on power sector 4. OBJ’s rail project-35 billion dollars, 250 million dollars paid with nothing to show for it 5. Ajaokuta privatization scam, 5.6 billion dollars spent and it was sold at 500 million dollars, etc. Anonymous

Dear Sir, a good leader ought to address very weighty and salient issues and allegations raised in the Obasanjo’s letter for the benefit of the nation. Anonymous

Letters are the instruments of expressing one’s feelings. Our leaders who are writing letters are expresing their concern concerning the happenings in the country. The president should not take those letters as a fun rather he should take them as an opportunity re-ajust his stand. The president should consider the writer of any letter to him as his best friend not his enemy. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos

Al Mustapha lacks all manner of military ethics to be inviting Gen. Obasanjo to a public debate. From Sqn Ldr Olufemi Francis, Marina, Lagos

Mr President is talking and acting like a baby politician. I wonder how he became the President in the first instance! I blame all those pastors that turn their pulpit to political rally podium. Jonathan should stop dividing Nigeria in line of religion and tribe. Please tell him to listen to Obasanjo before it is too late.

Thank you sir, I read this piece and I was a bit dissapointed in the President’s jibe at Obasanjo in a church before the people of God. Obasanjo should not reply him, we the electorate are watching and patiently waiting for him at the polls in 2015. APC will rule Nigeria. Anonymous

The President is right, the country belongs to us not the greedy politcians like Obasanjo. Let Nigerians decide their future through the national confab. Anonymous

Sir, your power of letters is an interesting piece, it is indeed a season of letter writing. All the bobajiro of jibitiland and ogbologbo of jandukuland will tremble on reading this article. I was reeling with laughter on reading the article. Keep it up. Happy Chrismas and prosperous new year in advance. Anonymous

Your note Dec 26th refers: To say Obasanjo has his own flaws is to say the least; he is constantly displaying his crisis everywhere. However, all good thinking Nigerians are sure that ninety per cent of Obasanjo’s comments are obviously true of our beloved country’s leadership under Jonathan – corruption, ethnicism, greed, ineptitude, abuse, to mention a few of Jonathasn’s characteristics . The altercation between them is a reflection of our ‘leaders’. Anonymous

The President’s comment on politicians at the cathedral church of the advent, Lifecamp, Abuja was very normal and in order because the President has all the constitutional right to make any comment in any place in his country. So it was not any fury. From Hon. Ubong

Gbenga my brother, compliments. God bless you for making my day with your comment: The President’s fury. You reflected my exact mood as I listened to the President on NTA Network News last night. I felt relieved after reading the well crafted two paragraphs. Thank you. Regards! From Ayo Akinyemi

This is season of letters revolution over leadership control. It is the beauty of democracy but let not feud truncate our democracy, let presidency and Obasanjo embrace peace in the interest of 160 million Nigerians. Where there is crisis in leadership, development is always set back. We believe all these letters should be an eye opener for Nigerians against the backdrop of where our leaders are taking Nigerians to. Well, time will tell. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia

Let Jonathan stop the sermon, heed advice, respect elders, work on those tips, tackle corruption, remain focused on state challenges. Tell him to stop abusing his father’s age mate Obasanjo as any river that dares its origin will surely dry up. Let Baba too ‘Sidon De look and stop advising Almighty sitting President.’ Anonymous

Jonathan is attacking political opponents in church to attract affection and sympathy of Christians as he did before and to escalate religious dishamony. He always plays divisive politics. From Adam Descky, Abia state

I agree with President Jonathan that Nigeria does not belong to any politician he himself inclusive. He however left out one thing: politicians who think they own Nigeria ought not to do which is imposition of incompetent leaders on us particularly as Vice-Presidents for they may by goodluck become presidents. Anonymous

All we expect from our President is to deliver on his mandate and see if we the masses will not vote for him irrespective of religion, ethnic or regional inclination. Afterall, poverty does not know zoning or progressive. From Mangs P., Jos

I think the President is wiser than his teachers. He should keep it up. From Nnabuko, Suleja

Re: The President’s fury. The church has been turned to platform to settle political issues, because church leaders are after money and appointment. From Osa Uwanomhen

The President is neither whinning nor whimpering, but he is rather admonishing and advising as the true mature leader he is. We have not yet come to terms with the exceptional qualities of the President we currently have. History will vindicate him, and history will also indicate on which side of the Jonathan era we stood; whether as patriots or villains. Anonymous

To describe Mr President Jonathan Goodluck as “whining and whimpering” is too much for any news paper to publish. Everybody, high and low should think and write responsibly. For a former head to be writing a letter to “his boy president” is infradignitata. The content of the letters from the “father and son” will nail the political coffin of the guilty. Truth is no respecter of persons. From Dele Oluwatade

I was expecting such letter but not from the former President like Olusegun Obasanjo because he was “the kingmaker”. To the best of my knowlege all the allegations written in that letter were true picture of what is going on in the country. The President’s reply did not exonerate him unless he allows all concerned security agencies to conduct details investigation and make their “finding” public. Look at what is going on in the ruling party now you will come to the conclusion that he is the cause; he could not manage human being. My appeal to eligible voters in year 2015 is to vote wisely. From, Prince O.Y.O. Ayodele, Social Commentator, Akure, Ondo State

For Tunji Adegboyega

A church that ought to be an hospital for sinners has now become a museum for the saint. Anonymous

Tunji, Baba o! Your “The President’s pets” was the only soothing relief to end the year. E see sir (thank you). From Akpan, Calabar.

Sir, your comment is another wonderful satire if I am right. You always make my Sundays enjoyable. May God bless your mind and hand to continue to enlighten us the more. Happy New Year in advance. Anonymous.

For our government to propose N34m for feeding animals only in 2014 is a clear indication that our leaders don’t have regard for the citizens. Anonymous.

I have read “the President’s pets” (Nation December 29). Totally trite. Anonymous.

Tunji, I was going to church when I stopped to flip through the papers just to see your humorous, creatively crafted write-up. I laughed till I didn’t go to church again. Anonymous.

It is sheer waste of resources to feed animals with tax-payers money when there is necessity for money to invest in meaningful projects that could create jobs and change the lives of citizens for good. It is very unfortunate and unacceptable venture. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

It is really unfortunate that the president is being attacked from all fronts, particularly by a few Yoruba renegade, Hausa Fulani stock despite the fact that this president has come to navigate or tread a path never navigated by any past president. Not even the one who … his tribesman, a sitting minister just because he wanted to be a regional leader. And this myopic Tunji is talking about money budgeted for two animals in Aso rock Villa. You wait for it; we will tell what is spent now by purported progressive governors on reptiles in their states. Anonymous.

Nigerians should not be bothered about the activities of the president because, to him, opportunity comes but once. So, his idea is, let me use it as I want. He has forgotten if he does not use the opportunity wisely, the opportunity will dump him for a better opportunist. The president now values beasts more than humans. He should cast his mind back to when he had no shoes. History is on the side of the oppressed. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

Tunji, what other evidence do you need to believe that those ruling this country are (?) Nigerians are in for some testy times. Lord have mercy! From Simon O.

Tunji, I just re-read your October 27 article titled “Cars Stella may still ride”. Events have proved you right. Kudos. Merry Christmas and happy 2014. From Valentine Ojo, Maitama, Abuja.

January 1, 2014
Vindicating Obasanjo?

•The attacks on a judge and Rivers State deputy governor happen days after ex-president’s killer squad allegations

The unfurling theatre of the absurd in Rivers State is avoidable but for the deplorable politics of bigotry that is regrettably gaining ground in that area. Every passing day, the state is transgressing into anarchy arising ostensibly from political distrust between the Presidency and Governor Rotimi Amaechi, over President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid to secure the state in preparation for his strictly guarded re-election bid in 2015.

In quick succession, the office of Tele Ikuru, the state’s deputy governor was bombed by yet-to-be identified persons. This was drearily followed by the despicable bombing of Justice Charles Wali’s office on Omoku Road, Ahoada. Part of the administrative block of the judge’s office and some cars were destroyed by the bomb. What could be responsible for this last dastardly act? We recollect that the judge, in one of his most recent rulings, gave an order stopping Evans Bipi, a legislator, from parading himself as Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly when a de jure speaker is still in place. Could this despicable act of bombing be a stern but repugnant way of stopping judges in the state from valiantly dispensing justice?

We could see a regime of palpable fear evolving in the state because inhabitants now worry over when and where the next bomb will explode, since their safety can no longer be guaranteed by the state. And this is due largely to no fault of the governor as chief security officer but the disruptive activities of some people who are misbehaving because they feel they are covered by the federal might. Sadly, the criminal elements that the Amaechi administration had chased away from the state are currently staging a shameful comeback, in their bid to make the state ungovernable; with the police always looking the other way.

What is happening in Rivers State is condemnable, especially coming at a time when former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently wrote an incisive letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, in which he accused the federal administration of training snipers and putting over 1,000 persons under a watch list. The response of the president to the thought-provoking letter was tepid as it could not fully allay public fears over such a weighty allegation from an ex-president who is in a vantage position to have such privileged information. And barely two weeks after the letter, it is curious that some faceless unscrupulous elements are beginning to set Rivers State on fire for selfish reasons. To make the matter worse, the agents of darkness in that state are gradually making the Temple of Justice and its officers their object of target in their bid to gain political power at all cost.

We can decipher a gradual relapse of the country into the better forgotten tyrannical military era, particularly the reign of despotic Gen Sani Abacha when snipers mauled down a lot of notable Nigerians, mostly in their prime. While we are beginning to feel that such distasteful era belonged to the past, it is sad that President Jonathan is hopelessly watching as Rivers, which is one of the most important states in the country, is being put on fire for parochial political reasons.

The only way the presidency can convince deeply concerned Nigerians that it is not stoking this ember of discord is to ensure that those responsible for the bombings and other satanic acts in the state and indeed other parts of the country are apprehended and made to face the full wrath of the law.

January 1, 2014
Haba! If you Sanjo me, I will Ebele you!

SIR: When Gerald Ford was President of the United States, an incident occurred that is of particular relevance in this instance of the present imbroglio between Presidents Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. President Ford’s 18-year-old daughter was quoted‘ as having said, with reference to an issue that was the talk of the nation then, that “the president was stupid.”

Excitedly, journalists rushed to the White House where a cornered President Ford was asked bluntly by a reporter; “Mr. President, your daughter said you are stupid. Any comments?” President Ford’s response, paraphrased, went something like this. “You know what you just said is not true. I have seen the clip of my daughter’s comments. What she said was “the president was stupid,” and I am very proud of the fact that by saying that she has exercised her rights as an American citizen to criticize the American president not minding the fact that the president is her father. How many 18 year-old American citizens say worse things about the president daily around the country without remorse? If she had said “my father was stupid,” then, I will do what I need to do as her father.”

Americans responded to his answer with acclamations and kudos. He was hailed for upholding the tenets of the oath he took at his inauguration; to defend and uphold the American Constitution and the rights of American citizens!

I am sure that President Jonathan took an oath that is similar, in intent if not practice, to the oath taken by any American president, even any president, at inauguration. So, why the pugilistic exchange of” blows” and “counter-blows” between an incumbent president and a former one, who, for all intents and purposes, was, in my estimation, simply exercising his rights as an ordinary Nigerian? Does Mr. President read the newspapers daily where allegations worse than President Obasanjo’s comments and allegations feature regularly?

Fellow Nigerians, writing scathing criticisms of a president, calling presidents names unfit for dogs and pets, and peddling innuendoes about a president’s penchant for doing the incredible, and so on, are issues of fundamental rights of citizens around the world; the much ballyhooed and acclaimed “dividends of democracy.” Both Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan know this for a fact. No one would deny or prevent President Obasanjo from his opportunity to enjoy his rights as a Nigerian citizen.

Donald Trump writes full page letters to the American president regularly. Former American presidents also communicate with the incumbent president on regular basis through the pages of newspapers. Incumbent presidents never respond. So, why is the presidency in Abuja so bent out of shape?

In the wisdom of African folklore, when two elephants make love, the ground suffers. When they fight, the ground suffers too! So, it does not matter what two elephants do to one another; it is the ground that will suffer. Unfortunately, the ground that is suffering is Nigeria!

When, in 2011, at the Eagle Square PDP Convention, President Obasanjo stood at the head of the chorus of PDP’s members, urging them to follow him as Jonathan was anointed PDP presidential flag bearer in the 2011 elections, Nigerians suffered. Today, in 2013, as arrangements are being put in place for the selection of PDP’s flag bearer for the 2015 elections, Nigeria is still suffering!

The country’s issues and sufferings would never be addressed by the kinds of political ping-pong being played by its present and/or former leaders.” If you Sanjo me, I will Ebele you,” is definitely not the way to go.

• Angelicus-M. Onasanya

Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

January 1, 2014
A season of open letters

The General is at it again! When he is not openly criticising the man he facilitated his ascendancy to Aso Rock with his utterances, he is hobnobbing with state governors eyeing President Goodluck Jonathan’s seat and opposed to his second term aspiration.

But his latest offering in the form of a narcissistic missive is a desperate attempt from his moral grandeur to salvage whatever is left of the wreckage of a crashed landed flight piloted by his stooge.

The purpose of the mixed grill of a letter must be to rubbish the present administration and Obasanjo has succeeded, in turning himself to a hero, once again. Unfortunately, Nigerians have fallen cheaply for his uncanny ability to draw negative messianic attention to himself with his manipulatively tendencies.

Little wonder, the reactions that have trailed his controversial letter are legion and everyone, wittingly or unwittingly, has been drawn to join in what is now widely regarded as the ‘shegedance’.

The former president’s epistle actually overshadowed the attention another leaked complaint letter would have gotten. Dated 25 September to President Goodluck Jonathan from Mallam Sanusi Lamido, his revelation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Nigeria’s cesspit of corruption – has failed to remit $49.8 billion, being proceeds from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013 to the Federation Account elicited widespread outrage.

But appearing before the Senate committee on finance, Mr. Sanusi, said an ongoing review of relevant accounts between the CBN, the NNPC and the ministry of finance showed that only $12 billion (N1.9 trillion) was missing as of yet.

Without the patience to pen many pages of letter which will likely go unreplied and trashed at the State House, the number three citizen of the country, Speaker AminuTambuwal, on Monday, 9 December, at an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association to mark the 2013 International Anti-Corruption Day, came down hard on President Goodluck Jonathan whom he accused of encouraging corruption with his body language.

He cited examples with the recent Oduahgate that the presidency swept under the carpet while lamenting that anti-corruption agencies have gone to sleep.

The media was still awash with Obasanjo’s letter ‘bomb’ to President Jonathan, as a response was still awaited when the eldest daughter of the Mr Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, joined the fray with an open epistle of her own to her father, not a response or “support to President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person,” she remarked.

In the purported letter, she ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president.

Iyabo exposed how Obasanjo got away with many of his atrocities because “Nigerians were his enablers and people ultimately get leaders that reflect them.”

Not forgetting the letter to Obasanjo (Daily Trust 15/12/2013) by a former chairman of the PDP, Audu Ogbeh.

In his narrative, he challenged Obasanjo over the role he played as then president, when he watched with glee from his seat of power in Aso Rock as rampaging thugs unleashed mayhem and made Anambra state ungovernable, kidnapping former Governor , Chris Ngige, and eventually swearing in his deputy, to cut a long story short.

In the spirit of the season, a former Chief Justice of the Federation, Dahiru Musdapher, on December 20, weighed in with his own open letter to President Jonathan. He recalled how Jonathan brushed aside recommendations from the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to sack former Appeal Court president, Ayo Salami, ignoring firm arguments by the two authorities that Mr. Salami was innocent of allegations against him. Punishing Mr. Salami, they advised, would terribly dent an already integrity-deficient judiciary. But all these fell on deaf ears.

Back to Obasanjo’s missive, the most weighty of all the letters since it is coming from a past civilian president to the incumbent. My brief here is not to dismiss the message with the wave of the hand because the messenger is guilty of more grievous offences. This will be akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. There’s no way the message can be separated from the messenger, especially when the messenger is far worse than the recipient. However, it makes sense to review the substance of the message.

Describe the former president’s letter with any negative adjective like these: hypocritical, satanic, demonic, messianic, self-serving, mischievous, deceitful and instantly, you paint a picture of a controversial epistle from a depraved man persistently tortured by the heinous crime he perpetuated in his eight years (mis) rule as a democratically elected president, culminating in a sham election that threw up a terminally ill Umaru Yar’dua and a docile Goodluck Jonathan.

He knew the former could not survive one term let alone two. He was not oblivious that Jonathan was incompetent and nondescript, yet he craftily foisted him on us. Obasanjo advertised them both as the only pair capable of turning the country’s fortune around.

The former president is the personification of everything wrong with Nigeria. He epitomizes corruption, irresponsible leadership, dishonesty, double standard. Our collective amnesia is the only reason anyone will heap praises on the Ota farmer for that letter.

That said his message is apt for the season and should be taken seriously. The issues raised, though germane are common knowledge save for the part where he talked about 1000 people placed on political watch list and training of a presidential hit squad of snipers to take out perceived and real enemies of this administration

Obasanjo’s 18 page diatribe will likely go the way of his four previous letters to Jonathan – The trash can. This letter is a reaction from the General’s bruised ego of his previous epistles that were ignored. Maybe Obasanjo should have paused to ponder why his previous letters were shredded considering it would have taken nothing to respond with Jonathan’s horde of frothing aides. Did he not think that Mr. President might have deemed it appropriate to convey in subtle manner the old aphorism: “silence is the best answer for a fool”?

His missive dripped of charlatanism and unrepentant impunity that reminds us of a freed prisoner who falsely arrogates to himself the title of a ‘Statesman’. Here is a man who hunted his political foes with state instruments, he imposed his stooges in various political offices, undermined democracy with massive electoral fraud just as he flagrantly disobeyed court orders.

There was fiscal unaccountability of astronomical proportions during his administration. He usurped the petroleum ministry, he is accused of human rights abuse by way of massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam. How can we forget Mr, Obasanjo’s futile attempt to change the Nigerian constitution with billions of naira to grant himself perpetual tenancy, or is it the $16 billion dollar he splashed out to his cronies in government to generate darkness?

By accusing Jonathan of giving opposition parties support in gubernatorial elections was he trying to insinuate and admonish Jonathan to tamper with the electoral process and impose PDP candidates on the electorate against their wish?

Obasanjo will easily beat anyone to be inducted in the country’s hall of shame for his recklessness and manipulative tendencies but that should not make us disregard his warnings particularly now that he realises that the man he installed as president is well on course to smash every infamous and dishonest record he set.

Obasanjo should receive his torture in silence if he is now disenchanted with the ‘anointed one’ he installed as president. His moral grandeur is the height of his self-delusion. He should leave the rest of his life in silence and give opportunity to people with integrity to talk.

Beyond the messenger, the propriety of the letter and the way it was thrown in the public, there are serious treasonable allegations that in the national interest. From the political watch list to the presidential secret hit squad in covert training; abuse of office; mismanagement of national resources; incompetence; deliberately strengthening the fault lines of clannishness religion and region; factionalisation and weakening of the PDP are just a highlight of the weighty allegations Nigerians are demanding for answers.

President Jonathan’s electoral promise to fight corruption headlong has since been forgotten as recent allegations from Obasanjo, Sanusi and Speaker Tambuwal that the President is participating in, and facilitating the rapid growth of corruption has blurred any impression Jonathan has made in his effort to fight the scourge. .

As we match towards 2015, we watch on as the drama of unending political battle of wits between a godfather and his godson unfold.

TheophilusIlevbare is a public affairs commentator. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs at http://ilevbare.com.

December 24, 2013