The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Olusegun Obasanjo

  • Politics of letters and the unlettered

    Politics of letters and the unlettered

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s belated and rather inconsequential response to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s criticism of his administration naturally sought to dismiss the allegations of corruption, insecurity and religious division. The effort is wasted on an already sensitised public. A weak leader presides, and the foundations of Nigerian democracy quake.

    More than his reply, Dr Jonathan’s treatise on the Nigerian politician’s failure to reflect the virtues of humility, dignity and patriotism espoused by departed South Africa icon and former president Nelson Mandela sorely missed the point. But it was just as well that the president chose the occasion of the late icon’s memorial service on December 15 at Aso Villa Chapel, Abuja, to deliver the wrong speech, for it allowed us a comprehensive peek into his opposition-troubled soul. His depiction of local politicians as ‘tiny men’ appeared aimed at Chief Obasanjo who weighed in with a pointy missive that all but took his protégé to the cleaners.

    Earlier, Obasanjo regaled long-suffering compatriots with anecdotal rendition of Mandela’s response to his suggestion of a second term. “Show me a place in the world when an 80-year-old man is running the affairs of his country,” asked the clearly more cerebral leader. By the gleeful retelling, Obasanjo accentuated error of judgment common with Nigerian leaders. While we yet rued our luck, the now-famous 18-page letter titled ‘Before it is too late’ made the headlines later than its December 2 date. As conjecture ripened, a livid Aso Rock managed a muffled protest. Obasanjo, who acknowledged grooming the ailing Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his successor Jonathan as president and vice president, affected genuine concern for the national drift. Did he smart from Jonathan’s “tiny men” allusion? Did the former president fear the imminent extinction of his ‘baby’, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? Or did he move to claim a deferred place in history in the wake of Mandela’s passing? Or perhaps his motive combined all possibilities?

    Still, Obasanjo’s poorly-worked and often contradictory letter taxed Jonathan on the anti-corruption fight earlier questioned by Speaker of the National Assembly, Aminu Tambuwal, and Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. In another letter to the president, Sanusi urged a probe of the missing $49.8 billion from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accounts between January 2012 and July 2013. While Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has since clarified aspects of the accounts to the detriment of Sanusi’s professional judgment, the affair reinforces public perception of NNPC as a house of sleaze.

    The Obasanjo epistle alleged the existence of a sniper training school and a political watch-list as well as schism between the mainly Muslim North and largely Christian South stretched by the president’s re-election plans. Yet, Jonathan’s dictatorial tendency scarcely makes news. A show of kneeling down before the clergy barely inspires the nation, for he is not president of Christians alone. Nor is he a regional head as militants; youth groups and elders from his Ijaw ethnic group regularly convey via veiled threats at security breach if their principal is assailed by the opposition and Armageddon once he is denied a second term.

    Besides the soured political father-and-son relationship, the rudimentary conduct of Jonathan’s supporters and the deification of Mandela by khaki-clad former despots illuminate the poverty of thought that bogs Nigeria. It raises, at the juncture of Mandela’s passing and a lacuna in continental leadership, the question of the country’s intelligence quotient average. Apart from sterility of ideas and general fascination with the mediocre, official performance and the quality of discourse seem most pedestrian under the government of Nigeria’s most certificated leader. But our leaders are not from outer space. They merely reflect, and deepen, common values.

    Contrast the antecedents of Nigeria’s ruling political class with Mandela’s. The fiery lawyer and former boxer in 1990 surmounted 27 years in jail for the liberation struggle to forgive his hard-hearted jailers and earn international renown. He resumed his affiliation with the African National Congress (ANC) and subsequently led the party to victory in South Africa’s first multiracial elections four years after. As the country’s first black President, Mandela cut a dignified figure, delegated power and resisted the continent-wide ‘tradition’ of a second and possibly life term as president. His weary, septuagenarian self probably yearned for relief or he may have set out to establish democratic ethos, but Mandela enhanced racial integration by pointing his long-suffering people towards nationhood and healing of racial tension with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee he instituted and the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize he shared with Frederik Willem de Klerk for jointly ending segregation and setting up a peaceful transition to majority rule.

    Compared to haughty, siren-blaring, horsewhip-brandishing leaders here, Mandela delivered an enduring lesson in humanity with rare simplicity. The cascade of tears that trailed his demise at 95 on December 5 and the memorial service in Johannesburg confirmed adulation from all corners of the globe including the apartheid-propping western world led by the United States of America, whose president, Barack Obama, highlighted the tributes possibly at Nigeria’s expense.

    As acknowledged by Mandela, Nigeria, on account of its human and material resources, should lead the continent despite a history of graft, indiscipline and violent elections. With Nigerian officials locked in denial after the Johannesburg rebuff, however, it wounds deeply to think that a president now known for taking ill at world events preferred the backstage when ‘reward’ for the costly support for South African brethren beckoned. They let the chance slip, yet ignorant aides hardly kick themselves for wasting the mileage a short speech linking Nigeria’s role in the struggle against apartheid to Mandela’s emergence and the future of the Rainbow Nation would have fetched the country.

    How the glory days of Nigeria’s founding fathers and stimulating parliamentary debates haunt. For want of a Mandela to trump, we may invoke the zeitgeist of the 50s and 60s to stem the affliction of today. With their consultation by the political class, ‘distribution’ of oil blocks and near-domination of corporate Nigeria, ex-generals rule politics and the economy, but they bungled the country’s prospects and left an inchoate mass that ill-motivated politicians strain to decipher. The greatest indictment of the era of jackboots must, however, be over-centralisation of government, institution of the retrogressive quota system and a general disdain for education. The military skewered the value system, in other words.

    Obasanjo shared the contents of his letter with Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, when his opinion or their reactions need not carry national import. After all, M.K.O. Abiola died in detention fighting for the 1993 presidential election mandate denied by Babangida, who credited the annulment to dictates of the time. And Abdulsalami in 1999 ushered in Obasanjo and his do-or-die methods.

    Of Nigeria’s raucous power-wielding lot, how many indeed can bear a fraction of Mandela’s cross? Not in beating the path of freedom-fighting and lengthy incarceration, for that is rendered trite by the collapse of apartheid and the age of political correctness. A handful, by progressive affiliation, indicates promise, but it will take more than association to right a wrong course. With its history of perilous political scheming, the country may never allow its best near power, nor would its fossilised kingmakers be as receptive. The alternative is to cultivate a desirable crop: leaders at home in the north as in the south, leaders less prone to religious and sectional considerations, and leaders given to deeper thought and nobler deeds.

     

    • Fagbemi is a staff of The Nation

  • Now Jonathan has replied

    Now Jonathan has replied

    Writing under the title ‘A season of open letters’ I had in this column last week, examined some issues arising from the open letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Jonathan in which he raised several damaging allegations against him. That article was largely based on extant facts even as Jonathan was yet to provide his own side of the story. There was also the suggestion that even before the column is published, we could be treated with more letters.

    That prediction came to pass as Jonathan’s response made the headlines the very Monday the said article was published. Since the previous one was done without the side of the accused, it is only apposite that issues are put in their proper context now we have heard both sides. This is more so given Obasanjo’s reaction to the effect that he was not going to address the new issues raised in Jonathan’s reply.

    Obasanjo’s new position may have been borne out of one or two reasons. It could be to stave off the heating up of the political space and the prospects of the controversy precipitating crisis or he has taken to the caution by some other elder statesmen that issues of that nature are not sorted out the way he set out or both.

    He may also have reasoned that those who live in glass houses do not have to throw stones as the outcome could be the destruction of their mighty glass edifices. This line of thought is further reinforced by some of the incontrovertible insights brought to the fore by Jonathan’s reply.

    Whatever the reason, it is clear that by not rising to the new disclosures by Jonathan, Obasanjo has wittingly or unwittingly whittled down the import of the acerbic allegations he purported to have made in the overall national interest. If he was acting in the overall national interest, the minimum expectation is that he should further join issues with Jonathan so that the nation can benefit from it. But if he is not prepared to go the whole hog, why embark on a futile journey? Not with the weighty allegations Nigerians are eager to know their final outcome. Why whet the appetite of the people by raising accusing fingers if only to allow issues hanging? And of what value are allegations and counter allegations without efforts to establish their veracity?

    These posers are raised given the avalanche of public demand that Jonathan should respond to the issues raised and the obvious insinuations that had gone with them. Even then, there are still those who feel Jonathan’s response has not been far-reaching enough. They would therefore want him to proceed further to investigate some of the alleged infractions he associated previous regimes with including that of his traducer. There is a valid point here.

    With the volte-face by Obasanjo, it would appear nothing will be gained from this dialectics. And given the debilitating crisis this country is entangled in, the minimum expectation is that the simmering contradiction will come with some heuristic value. It is perhaps, the first time in our recent history that a former president and a sitting one will engage each other in such open accusations on the sundry ills that have buffeted this country over the years. Such a clash ought to activate the social dynamics of history. The envisaged clash between thesis and antithesis should give rise to synthesis. Its outcome ought to benefit the society better. That should be the envisaged outcome of those inquisitions. It would appear it is this historical motion that Obasanjo wants to stall by now opting to remain silent. He must not be allowed to do so at this point.

    He spoke of the Arab spring and the turn of events in Egypt. He spoke of rising corruption, insecurity and the gradual slide to dictatorship in a democracy. Jonathan has responded to the issue of corruption, insecurity and the accusation that he was training snipers to assassinate his political enemies. He has even gone further to show that terrorism did not start during his regime while there has been no record of political killings.

    By way of contrast, there were political killings during Obasanjo’ regime and some of the very well known cases of corruption during the same period included the scandals involving Siemens and Halliburton. Jonathan would want to know the status of these cases and what the sitting President did then. He has also challenged Obasanjo to produce the list of the 1000 people under political watch and the agencies of government detailed to monitor them. He also reasoned the allegation may be a subterfuge to embolden all manner of killers to strike only to turn round and heap the blame at the door steps of the government. This is a very grave issue.

    In sum, he accused Obasanjo of instigating the crisis in the PDP to harass him out of an undeclared ambition in 2015 so as to install one of his acolytes. Even as some of Jonathan’s responses are already in the court of public opinion, Obasanjo owes it a bounden duty to this country to rise to the challenge of his self-assigned role of being the conscience of the nation. He has further been challenged by former Chief Security Officer to late Gen. Sani Abacha Major Hamza Al Mustapha to a public debate on some of the issues he raised.

    The point here is that Obasanjo has set in motion a seemingly system sanitizing process. He says his motivation is to serve the overall good of this country. Given that the ills which he accused Jonathan of are at the root of stultifying this country’s efforts at meaningful development, it is only proper that we get at the root of the matter.

    It would not amount to demanding too much if some of the corruption related scandals and political killings mentioned by Jonathan are now probed. The case of Bola Ige who was assassinated in his bedroom as a minister even with the retinue of security men detailed to protect him is still very fresh. There are some others also.

    In effect, the nation ought to gain something from the altercations that have arisen from Obasanjo’s letter. There are issues some of these leaders know and actions they have taken they may not be willing to tell the people. Now Obasanjo has opened our eyes to the rot that can go on in the name of governance, it is time a high powered inquisition into the activities of all past regimes commenced. Most of those who have ruled the country (military or civilian) are still alive. It might not amount to demanding too much to probe such people now.

    Increasingly, it is dawning on us that some of these people constitute the greatest liability to this country. They have their hands every where and in every thing in the warped thinking that without them Nigeria cannot be. But besides this claim to patriotism, is the hidden urge to gain selfish and sectional advantage. That is why Obasanjo had to insult our collective sensibilities by telling us the number of northerners he helped to power. Now he is seeking another opportunity and it appears elusive, the incumbent must be caught down. He must show all the evidence with which to prove Jonathan wrong or take the responsibility for the outcome of the dangerous issues he canvassed. It is possible to resolve our suffocating national problems from this clash depending on its handle.

  • Jonathan’s belated anti-venom makes split deeper

    Jonathan’s belated anti-venom makes split deeper

    In former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s blistering letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, there was no hint of the statesman or of lofty ideas; no show of stately language or of decorum; and nothing of the logical coherence or philosophical exactitude expected from great leaders. Indeed, it was full of rebuke, of sanctimonious gibberish, of offensive display of superior airs, and remorseless grandstanding. In my consideration of the letter last week, I suggested that when Dr Jonathan’s reply would finally come, it would be as inaccurate and full of drivel as that of Chief Obasanjo, and perhaps more pedantic. I have not been disappointed. In Dr Jonathan’s reply, there was absolutely nothing elegant; not of language nor of ideas, not of indisputable facts nor of moderation and restraint. Indeed, in the letters, the two leaders were united by their common atrociousness, a vice that invariably pulls them apart. Like poles, scientists say, repel.

    Chief Obasanjo wailed that Dr Jonathan had become intolerably lax in combatting corruption. The president had no response, for his treatment of the Stella Oduah matter stands as a refutation of any claims he might have to the contrary. Whatever other things he had to say on corruption was trivial and vexatious, especially his silence over what steps were proper for Nigeria under him to take on the Halliburton and Siemens scandals. There was also the nonsensical exchange on Buruji Kashamu, the businessman extraordinaire. It was baffling that Chief Obasanjo raised the matter at all; it was all the more baffling that Dr Jonathan deemed it merited a response. It was pure balderdash. In paragraph after paragraph, Dr Jonathan showed how he and Chief Obasanjo were much alike, though he argued his predecessor was worse.

    Many of those who read the letters suggest that on account of the severity of language use and the expletives, the two gentlemen would find it difficult to be reconciled. It is pointless to hazard any guess as to whether peace can be made between the two, for they are both sufficiently pliable and devoid of shame and moral compass to be eternally inflexible. They may have injured each other bitterly, and have abused themselves heartily, but the lies they tell, and the indifference with which they tell them, illustrate their common abhorrence of lofty ideals. Men such as these don’t fight for ever.

    But something else stands out in the letters. Chief Obasanjo’s is the more vigorous and memorable. In lying, his letter told memorable lies; and in self-praise it was more grandiloquent. Such talents are a testimony either to his military antecedents or his fundamental badness, or both. Dr Jonathan’s is the more timid and undistinguished. He didn’t lie as egregiously as Chief Obasanjo; he simply evaded the truth and buried himself in foul language. It reflected his distracted and servile mind. It is a shame both gentlemen ever rose to leadership position.

  • No politician owns Nigeria, Jonathan tells Obasanjo, others

    No politician owns Nigeria, Jonathan tells Obasanjo, others

    President Goodluck Jonathan has said that Nigeria does not belong to any politician or any group of politician.
    He spoke Wednesday at the Diocese of Abuja, The Cathedral Church of the Advent in Lifecamp, Abuja, where he attended his Christmas day church service along with his family members and some senior government officials.
    Even as he did not mention the name of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his speech, he referred to those making statements and writing open letters they ought not to write.
    Obasanjo had in a December 2nd, 2013 written an open letter to the President in which  he made weighty allegations against Jonathan and his administration.
    Jonathan Wednesday said: “For us at this time especially we the politicians that we think we own this country begin to think about next election and doing what we ought not to do, making statement we ought not to make, writing letters we suppose not to write.”“I call on clergymen and statesmen who really own this country because this country belongs to our statesmen, traditional rulers, religious leaders, our men, our women, our youth. Nigeria does not belong to any politician or group of politicians. So we continue to urge you to pray for this country.”

    On terrorism, he said: “The primate mentioned number of issues that deal with a number of nations that deals with crisis.  For those who know about terrorism, countries that are infested with terror will hardly get out of it. If you look at country like Pakistan, we even go to Pakistan to train our soldiers, in some parts of Pakistan as we are talking now there appears to be no government. So this country could have been worse.”

    “Look at the incidences in Abuja, even the police headquarters was boomed, the UN building right here in the seat of government, may be the next target would have been State House. So we have to thank God that we have been able to bring it to a reasonable level, though we are far from getting over. There are a lot of challenges but we have to thank God.”

    He went on: “Primate said if it were to be like Syria, what would we have done? Look at South Sudan they were part of Sudan and they felt that they were being dominated, they have resources, there is oil in part of South Sudan, they carried arms against the state, finally the whole world through the UN liberated them. In fact within this week we will be going for security council meeting under the AU. My envoy just came back on Sunday from where he had conversation with them on how do we stop this madness.”

    “So we have to thank God even though we still have this security challenges in our country at least we are reasonably better.”

    “In terms of Nigeria having crisis, the primate was mentioning can Ghana accommodate us, can Sierra Leone accommodate us. I was just laughing because even now Nigerians in these countries, the people are not even comfortable, we don’t have crisis but from Cameroon to Senegal, Nigerians are everywhere. If not for political and diplomatic reasons they would have even asked some of them to leave. Then assuming we have crisis, what would be the state, where will you go? Is it the Atlantic Ocean? So I urge you to continue to pray.”

    “I also thank the religious leaders of this country, they have been praying and I believe God has been hearing our prayers. We will do our best within the period that God has asked us to occupy the positions we are occupying.” He stated ]

    Delivering the sermon entitled ‘Peace and Joy, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh noted that the first coming of Jesus Christ brought peace and joy but that it will only be full at His second coming.
    According to him no part of the world is enjoying total peace as he urged Nigerians to continue to thank God for not making Nigeria’s situation worse like other countries.
    Quoting scriptures from Luke 2: 10, Isaiah 9: n6, Galatians 3: 28, 2nd Corinthians 5: 18, John 14: 27 and Matthew 5: 9, he urged Nigerians to continue to be a source of joy to themselves, their neighbours and the whole world.

    He said: “But we have challenges, how can you be talking of peace and joy to people in Syria, DRC, Southern Sudan, Middle East, Egypt, Indonesia and Ukraine. Will they understand? How do you explain joy to somebody who is bed ridden? These are the issues frost rating peace.”

    Blaming the western world for these crises, he said: “The western world sell these arms to other part of the globe and are still talking about peace. The money that people steal, they take it outside and they receive it and turn back to say these people are bad.”

    “Only God can give us peace and joy because man has so much complicated himself. If you have three good stories that give you joy, you are likely to have six stories that will upset you.”

    He also urged Nigerians to pray against agents of darkness who are thirsting for blood.

    Nigerians, he said, have no choice than to continue praying for peace as they have no other place to go.

    “Nigerians ought to be grateful to God and live responsibly. Do not join anybody to cause trouble. If we follow life diligently, Nigeria will blossom, your lives will blossom. Refugees are not the happiest of people, don’t make yourself a refugee.” He pleaded.

    The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan read the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 9: 2, 6 and 7 while President Jonathan read the Epistle from Hebrew 1: 1 to 12.

    Among those who attended the service included the Minister of State (FCT), Olajumoke Akinjide, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, Minister of Police Affairs, Called Olubolade.

  • Snipers: Jonathan reports Obasanjo to Rights Panel

    Snipers: Jonathan reports Obasanjo to Rights Panel

    Presidency seeks probe of allegations

    The Presidency has taken its case against ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

    It asked the commission to investigate the allegation of keeping over 1,000 people on a political watch list and training snipers.

    Jonathan made the demand in a letter to the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof Bem Angwe.

    A source in the commission, who confirmed the receipt of the December 23, 2013 letter, said Obasanjo may be invited for interaction on his allegation.

    The Presidency asked the NHRC to “investigate the allegations bothering on the human rights violations contained on pages 9-10 of the letter dated 2nd December 2013, written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR) attached to the memorandum under reference.

    “In order to properly delineate the issues within your sphere of competence, particularly as other issues raised in the letter are being investigated by appropriate agencies of government.”

    The letter cited two offensive paragraphs in Obasanjo’s letter for investigation by the NHRC.

    The paragraphs are:

    “Allegation of keeping over 1,000 people on political watch list rather than criminal or security watch list and training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha, and training them where Abacha trained his own killers, if it is true, cannot augur well for the initiator, the government and the people of Nigeria. Here again, there is the lesson of history to learn from for anybody who cares to learn from history. Mr. President would always remember that he was elected to maintain security for all Nigerians and protect them. And no one should prepare to kill or maim Nigerians for personal or political ambition or interest of anyone. The Yoruba adage says, ‘The man with whose head the coconut is broken may not live to savour the taste of the succulent fruit’. Those who advise you to go hard on those who oppose you are your worst enemies. Democratic politics admits and is permissive of supporters and opponents. When the consequences come, those who have wrongly advised you will not be there to help carry the can. Egypt must teach some lesson.

    “Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally, but particularly to the family of his victim. Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the Presidency. Or, as it is viewed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch.”

    The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN) in a memo to the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Bem Angwe, dated, December 23 to which he attached a copy of Obasanjo’s letter, directed Angwe to investigate allegations relating to human rights violations.

    Specifically, Adoke requested Angwe to investigate allegations bothering on the human rights violations contained in pages 9 and 10 of the letter by ex-President Obasanjo.

    The memo marked: HAGF/NHRC2013/Vol2/5, titled: “Re: Before it is to late,” a copy of which The Nation sighted yesterday, reads: “May I draw your attention to the above and the attached State House Memorandum dated December 23rd 2013 in respect of the above subject matter.

    “I am to request you to investigate the allegations bothering on the human rights violations contained on pages 9-10 of the latter dated December 2, 2013, written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR attached to the memorandum under reference.

    “In order to properly delineate the issues within your sphere of competence particularly as other issues raised in the letter are being investigated by appropriate agencies of government, I have decided to reproduce the relevant paragraphs below,” Adoke said.

    A source in the NHRC said: “We have received the letter and a memorandum attached to it. With the issues raised in the letter, we may invite ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo for interaction.

    “The question of being on political watch list raises some human rights issues. What I can assure you of is that we will be fair to all sides.”

    Responding to a question, the source said the demand of the Presidency was within the mandate of the NHRC.

    He cited Section 5(b) of the 2010 (Amendment Act) of the commission.

    The section reads in part: The Commission shall- (a) deal with all matters relating to the protection of human rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other International Treaties on human rights to which Nigeria is a signatory;

    “(b) monitor and investigate all alleged cases of human rights violation in Nigeria and make appropriate recommendation to the President for the prosecution and such other actions as it may deem expedient in each circumstance;

    “(c) assist victims of human rights violation and seek appropriate redress and remedies on their behalf…”

  • Between OBJ and GEJ and others in-between (I)

    Between OBJ and GEJ and others in-between (I)

    Last weekend, Leadership (December 21) published a story in which it quoted former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, (OBJ) as saying on his Facebook wall on December 20 that, following his controversial December 2 letter to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) which he ominously titled “Before it is too late”, it was time Nigerians turned on the heat in the polity so that only the best party should win the next general elections in 2015.

    “It is now time,” the newspaper quoted him as saying, “to turn up the heat. May the best party win.” In the light of his letter in which he admonished his estranged benefactor and godson to shape up or ship out, Obasanjo’s call for Nigerians to turn on the heat was clearly his coded way of asking Nigerians to throw out the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the next elections, the very party that gave him the platform to rule the country as its first elected president since 1985 and a party which he once boasted will rule Nigeria for a long, long time, if not forever.

    His call for Nigerians to turn up the heat also looked, at least to me, like a call on the select Nigerian leaders – Generals Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and Dr Alex Ekwueme with whom he said he had shared the content of his letter and who he also said shared his concerns – to speak out in his support.

    So far none has and it’s highly unlikely that anyone of them will. Up till now the only one among them who has said anything about the letter is General Danjuma and he has categorically said he will not criticise GEJ in the open. “I have complete and unimpeded access to the president,” he said in a goodwill message to the 6th Abuja Festival of Praise on the night of December 20 in response to what he said have been repeated calls by the press for him to say something about the letter, “and if I have anything to say to him, I will do so face to face. These are difficult times and we must be careful, especially as leaders on what we say in public.”

    The general’s argument of unimpeded access to the president precluding his speaking out does not look quite tenable; in November 2003 he spoke out against Obasanjo as a president that he said he found out was under the spell of a cult-like clique. At that time he had just left Obasanjo’s administration as the defense minister and he had complete and unimpeded access to the Obasanjo.

    Five years later, he said even more terrible things about his former friend and boss. In an interview with The Guardian (February 17, 2008) marking his 70th birthday he condemned Obasanjo as “the most toxic leader that Nigeria has produced so far.” The country, he said, “took him out of jail and made him a president; he abused Nigeria, he deceived Nigeria and he deserves a second term in prison and we will make sure he ends up there.”

    By then Obasanjo was, of course, no longer president but, on General Danjuma’s own contention, his friend still ruled Nigeria by proxy “through Yar’Adua, his puppet.” At the time Danjuma still had complete and unimpeded access to his friend and to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    So if the general has rejected calls for him to speak out on Obasanjo’s letter, it would not be because you speak truth to power only when you do not have complete and unimpeded access to those in power.

    In any case his attack on Obasanjo back in 2003 would not be the first time he’s spoken out against those in power even when they were completely accessible to him. There has to be other reasons for his reticence this time, probably foremost of which is his well publicised falling out with Obasanjo over the former president’s successful move to partially take away the oil well the general had been allocated by the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha, an oil well which has since proved one of the most lucrative in the country.

    As for Generals Babangida and Abubakar and Chief Ekwueme, they too, like General Danjuma, are more likely than not to maintain strategic silence, strategic because while they know much of what Obasanjo said in his letter is true, as we shall see next week, God willing, they do not want to offend or embarrass President Jonathan with whose government they’ve been doing good and brisk business in many sectors of the economy.

    Their strategic silence is also probably because they believe Obasanjo lacks the moral authority to condemn the president for all the offences he has charged the president with, not least of all the charges of bad faith and divisiveness. For, make no mistake about it, before Jonathan came along, Obasanjo was the most divisive president we’ve had in this country and someone whose word you took to your bank at your own peril, as I have tried to show in innumerable articles I have written about the man on these pages and elsewhere, one of which I shall reproduce on these pages in two weeks time, God willing, for its relevance to the ongoing controversy about his letter even though mine was written eleven years ago.

    The point of all this is that clearly Obasanjo is on his own in this letter writing business as a strategy of wrong footing President Jonathan. Worse for him, it seems the heat he wants President Jonathan and the PDP to be subjected to has been turned on him, first, from a quarter he – and probably most Nigerians, including this reporter – least expected and, second, from the reply to his letter by his erstwhile godson.

    Once upon a time, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, before he became arguably the most trenchant defender of President Obasanjo during his second term, described him as a Mr. Know-It-All and a stooge of not only the much maligned “Fulani caliphate.” Fani-Kayode said Obasanjo was also a stooge of “his Western European backers…and his friends at the IMF and the World Bank.” The man, he concluded, in that clearly malicious article in The Comet (March 18, 2001), since rested, “may end in utter disaster and shame.”

    At the time Fani-Kayode wrote those words not even he in his wildest thoughts could have imagined that the former president’s “disaster and shame” would come in the shape of a daughter who seemed to have benefitted most from being an Obasanjo, namely, Iyabo, a veterinary doctor and a PhD in public health.

    Iyabo is not the first to visit opprobrium upon her father; years ago Gbenga, her brother from the same mother, accused his old man of sleeping with his wife in a sworn affidavit. Being a man apparently with a crocodile skin, the accusation did not appear to “shake his coat”, as we say in local parlance.

    Iyabo’s charge against her father in a letter that was indeed a “red hot exclusive”, as the editors of Vanguard which published it on December 18 described it, must have rattled the man no end. Inspired, as she herself said, by her father’s 18-page letter to President Jonathan, she wrote her old man an 11-page letter dated December 16 in which she accused him of being “a liar, manipulator, a two-faced hypocrite” and a cruel and criminally negligent father and husband. Disaster and shame don’t come any worse than someone your own loins sired and who most people thought was your favourite, saying such unprintable things about you to the whole world, especially at a time you’d picked to fight a critical battle of your life.

    It was a sign of how much he was rattled that he called her while he was visiting in the US where she is now resident to confirm if she could indeed pen such blasphemy. Equally, it was a sign how much shame she must have known she has brought unto her family that she initially denied writing it.

     

     

    Feedback

     

    Re: The persecution of Governor Lamido

    Two weeks ago I promised to publish a very thoughtful reaction to my piece on the subject above last week but didn’t. My apologies. Below is a shortened and edited version of the reaction.

     

    Sir,

    I am yet to see people from the North call out their leaders to account. But instead what we have seen is people demonising Jonathan. I am not saying ‘don’t question Jonathan.’ All I’m saying is, let’s question from home first.

    I am a Muslim and from your name you seem to be one also. So let me use the religion angle.

    Tribal leaders in the desert and outside the Arabian Peninsula came to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and gave their allegiance to Islam and the Prophet himself agreeing to be ruled by him. Many people say that Islam was spread by the sword. But it only happened because of the leadership of the Prophet and the justice that reigned in Islam. Today many in the West are beginning to understand how Islam was spread.

    If the Prophet was seeking justice outside his kingdom without firstly, trying to clean up his own house, do you think Islam as we know it would have existed? But of course if you are a Muslim you most likely already know all of these. I hope we can do what is right. May God make it easy (for us all).

    Abdul’Aziz ibn Ibrahim

     

    Sir,

    I’m neither your fan nor apologist because I can’t stand your ethno-religious irredentism. But those who attacked you because of Lamido’s article should, if they can read English, read where you said, “This does NOT, of course, mean Lamido’s sons should not be prosecuted & their father exposed as….a hypocrite…”

    Myk Aiyemo – Abuja

    +2348052355655

  • To salvage Nigeria’s a task that must be done

    To salvage Nigeria’s a task that must be done

    SIR: In 1982, the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo wrote a letter to President Shehu Shagari to warn him about the precarious state of the Nigerian economy unless the President as the anchor man rose up to save the situation. However, those who never liked the face of the sage called him different names. The rest is now history. The letter from former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan could be likened to Awo’s letter mentioned above.

    One thing that is certain is that the nation is at a crossroad, and just like Awo pointed out then, there is need for our sailors to wake up to save the situation. Therefore, the rescue mission embarked upon by the leadership of the All Progressive Congress is a right step in a right direction. It is obvious that Nigeria is not at war at present; however, she is at the crossroad.

    Fifty three years after flag independence, 14 years after the dawn of a democratic dispensation, it is not yet Uhuru for this nation. With the enormous human and material resources this nation is endowed with, she is supposed to be the power house of Africa and indeed the developing nations of the world.

    The story of this nation is a story of lost opportunities. Economically, our economic experts are telling us that our economy is growing at six percent or more annually, which may seem encouraging by international standards but in reality the impact is not felt by the common man on the street.

    Local industries have been crippled due to competition from inferior but cheap foreign goods. Agriculture which was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy before the discovery of oil in commercial quantity has been neglected.

    There is endemic corruption at all tiers of government. Political power is sought by leaders for the sake of power and not to better the lots of the nation and its people. Governments at all tiers of government have alienated government from the governed. The effect is that the needs of the people are not always considered in the execution of government programmes but the parochial interest of the ruling class. That is why poverty is so endemic and living has become a hell for most people.

    Politics, being the major means of production has become a zero sum game. Elections as witnessed recently in Delta and Anambra states have become bloody battle with INEC which supposed to be impartial umpire becoming accomplice in the brazen rigging that characterized those elections. As a matter of fact, if morning determines the day, the abracadabra that the gubernatorial election held recently in Anambra State was, portends grave danger for this nation in 2015. This is because people are fed up with inept and wicked leadership who feed fat on people’s ignorance and cowardice and ready to do away with them.

    In view of the above, it is glaring that the country needs to be saved from the stranglehold of the cabal bent on keeping her perpetually under developed. This is why the rescue mission embarked upon by the All Progressive Congress leaders in Nigeria and the rainbow coalition in readiness for epic 2015 elections are welcome development. It is heart warming that not all elders in Nigeria are blindfolded to the reality of the abyss the country is at present. Therefore, it is time for other stakeholders to join hands in rescuing this nation from its present predicament.

     

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

  • Treason, what treason?

    Treason, what treason?

    •Call for presidential impeachment cannot amount to treason, since impeachment ais a constitutional provision

    On December 15, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) interim national publicity secretary, called on the National Assembly to commence immediate impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan, for sundry constitutional infractions. He claimed he spoke with a “high sense of responsibility”.

    Alhaji Mohammed accused the Jonathan Presidency, and the smarting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of plotting to plunge the country into chaos, by courting the courts to declare vacant the seats of its five former governors that just defected to the APC, despite the precedence of a Supreme Court judgment that rejected a similar prayer, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to remove estranged Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for defecting into the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    Hinting at a possible judicial collusion bordering on high corruption, Alhaji Mohammed warned of “widespread repercussions as the APC has resolved that henceforth, every act of impunity of the PDP and the Presidency would be met with stiff resistance in the form of a vociferous telegraphing of people power, the likes of which have not been witnessed in these parts”. He added that since impeachment is “stipulated in the 1999 Constitution”, and the Jonathan government is at sea on security, corruption, massive unemployment and mass hunger, not to mention impunity, impeachment was a legitimate means to remove the president.

    But Dr. Reuben Abati, chief presidential spokesperson, dismissed “the reckless and irresponsible call by the APC” for Jonathan’s impeachment; and warned that “the APC and any persons who make themselves its willing tools for the breach of public order and safety will be made to face the full sanctions of the law. Those who are threatening fire and brimstone,” he declared, “should be ready for consequences of treasonable action”, adding that the APC could not browbeat the courts in pending political cases before them.

    Beyond legitimate attack and response, emotion and counter-emotion and partisan bile and counter-bile, the two issues here are impeachment and treason.

    Does an urge to impeach the president amount to treason? Certainly not, for a provision of the Constitution cannot be said to subvert the same constitution. That would be a contradiction in terms.

    But could a call for impeachment be reckless? Yes, if it is just to settle political scores; and thus slaughter the Constitution on the altar of crass partisanship. But is that the case here? Political exchanges are never clear-cut, for emotions mix with stark facts to produce a strange mixture.

    Still, the Jonathan Presidency would appear legitimately charged with flat-footedness in anti-corruption (witness the Stella Oduah case, for instance, in which the president appears helpless even with the House of Representatives asking him to dismiss the minister); and with dire constitutional breaches (the partisan abuse of the police in Rivers State; and the reprehensible conduct of the police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, in virtually levying war against the state government; and against real or perceived presidential opponents in that state).

    The Rivers State case is especially serious, for it taints the Presidency, and somewhat projects it as recklessly contemptible of the law that created that high office. That is a recipe for disaster, except the presidency changes tack and calls the constitutional bandits at the “front” to order; or faces possible sanction itself, if the opposition could muster the required number in parliament.

    Still, the impeachment option should be the very last, for it signals a point of no return for a republic grilling in illegality perpetrated by a president, its supposed guarantor-in-chief of law and legitimacy.

    So, let neither side go for broke. But let the Jonathan Presidency do the needful, after a frank soul-searching for, if the bitter truth must be told, its relentless impunity has turned PDP into a boiling cauldron; and pushed the country to this sorry pass.

    But as the opposition should be cautious in its utterances, let no one criminalise a justified call for impeachment. It’s no use issuing threats and flexing muscles, when the administration could quietly lower the political temperature by doing the right thing by law. It is the manifest folly of projecting power instead of projecting reason.

  • 2015: I’m on Jonathan’s watch list, says Amaechi

    2015: I’m on Jonathan’s watch list, says Amaechi

    Buhari, Akande, Tinubu, Masari, Jaja, others storm Port Harcourt

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi joined yesterday the raging controversy sparked by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The former President accused Dr. Jonathan of training snipers and putting 1,000 Nigerians on a watch list ahead of the 2015 elections. Jonathan denied it all, saying Obasanjo should prove the allegations.

    “I’m number one on the list. They want to kill me,” Amaechi told a huge crowd at the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

    It was at an exciting rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement – a political group backing Amaechi’s stand on the state’s political future.

    Amaechi dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Listening to Amaechi were many APC leaders, interim National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande; former House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Bello Masari, who is the party’s interim Deputy National Chairman; interim National Vice Chairman (Southsouth) Chief Tom Ikimi and Dr. Sam Sam-Jaja.

    Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was represented by his deputy, Dr. Pius Egberanmwen Odubu. Also there were the interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; two senators from Rivers State – Magnus Abe (Rivers Southeast) and Wilson Ake (Rivers West)- as well as a member of the House of Representatives from Rivers state, Dakuku Peterside (Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro constituency). There were many other eminent personalities.

    One of the leaders, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari described the Jonathan’s administration as “lawless” vowing that the main opposition party will deliver Nigeria democratically in 2015.

    Gen. Buhari, a former Head of State, also promised that he and other stakeholders, especially of the APC, would do everything constitutional, to ensure the 2015 elections were credible.

    Another national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said the party would sweep away evil, corruption and abuse of power from Rivers State and other parts of Nigeria.

    Amaechi, who is also the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) chairman, said: “Today (yesterday), I am not declaring. I said I would declare at the new stadium. The reason for gathering today is to remind Nigerians that the current Federal Government is carrying on with impunity. There is no rule of law in Nigeria. They are using police to molest us. Where police fail to molest us, they are using thugs to shoot dynamites and guns against innocent people.

    “I read the President’s (Jonathan’s) letter and he said ex-President Obasanjo should prove the 1,000 names on the watch list. I am number one on the list. They want to kill me, but they have no God. The God we worship will protect me. Before the end of the year, I will address the state.

    “They will shoot you. They have no fear for your blood. They want the position at all costs. Whether you all die, they do not mind governing just the land. You must know that if you read the story of revolution, you must sacrifice. Somebody said my son should come to the front. If you want my son tomorrow, I will produce him.

    “If I have surrendered myself and I am ready to be in front, let them shoot. Anytime you start a street march and you do not see me in the front, you must know something must be wrong and you must know that they have arrested me. I am not a big man governor. I am a governor that is on the streets with his people.

    “One other thing that is bothering me is that all those who are on the other side, saying they want Southsouth President, I agree with them, they want Southsouth President. In politics, you are not here today (yesterday) because you like Amaechi; you are here because of your own political interest. If a Southsouth President refused to give you water, you will push him out.

    “We gave the President (Jonathan in 2011) nearly two million votes, let him tell us one project he has done for us. I have challenged the President that I belong to the APC. If he wants Rivers people to vote for him, let him give Kalabari people back their oil wells and I will come back (to the PDP). He cannot. The President cannot. Instead, he will take more.”

    Amaechi also admonished the people, especially his teeming supporters, to be prepared for the struggle ahead, stating that on elections’ days, the “oppressors” would come with tanks and policemen, but urged them to stand and watch their votes.

    The Rivers governor said: “They said Buhari is not a Christian. Buhari is a Muslim. We are not preaching religious politics. Everybody in Nigeria has the right to worship where he wants to worship. I am a Catholic and I will worship Christ. I will die a Christian, but do not bring politics into good governance.

    “It is only when there is bad governance that they begin to look for who is an Ikwerre man, who is an Ijaw man, who is an Hausa man, who is a Yoruba man. If there is good governance, you will be talking about schools. Have I told you I am an Ikwerre man? I told you I have done schools, health centres and roads. I am facing power. They should tell us what they are doing. We are prepared for a debate with them.

    “In Etche, they have taken our 41 oil wells across (to Abia State). They are denying us our rights. We have suffered enough. I was a students’ leader. I learnt in the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) that nobody should trample on your rights. If I did not fight for my rights, I would not have been governor. I suffered and my children suffered, but today we are in government.

    “If you listen to them closely, our brothers, who are on the other side, they are hungry. They have been out of power for nearly eight years. If you vote them into power, what will happen? They will steal all the money. They are broke. The ones that are not broke, that are in government, they are busy stealing and building mansions everywhere. They have no fear. I have never seen corruption like this in Nigeria before.

    “President Jonathan said in his letter that former President Obasanjo should apologise on the issue of $49.8 billion. Right on television, a debate between the Minister of Finance (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) and the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) Governor (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi). The CBN Governor said they had reconciled, but they had not found $12 billion, but the Minister for Finance said it was $10.8 billion. Even if it is $1 billion, it is stealing. $1 billion is N170 billion. There are some states that their budget (annually) is N130 billion. Bring our money. I have never seen corruption like this.

    “They are busy pursuing us with the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), they have never pursed any federal agency with EFCC. I will quote the Governor of Edo State (Comrade Adams Oshiomhole); he said if you write examination and you score 26 per cent, have you passed? If you score 52 per cent, have you not passed? The Federal Government is holding 52 per cent of our money. EFCC should pursue the 52 per cent and leave 26 per cent. If EFCC succeeds in doing that, have we not succeeded?”

    Amaechi also stated that President Jonathan, in his reply of ex-President Obasanjo’s letter said the African Development Bank (AFDB) was carrying out the process of giving Rivers peoples water.

    The NGF chairman said: “Tell Mr. President that World Bank, not AFDB. Two banks are involved. One is AfDB’ the other is World Bank. We were told by the staff of the World Bank that they are ready. Tell the President (Jonathan) to give us our water.

    “If it is the President, I can understand, because the President has not served in any international organisation, but what about the woman (Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala), whose job it is to sign off, to give the water project.

    “The Minister of Finance has refused to sign off, despite the fact that she served in the World Bank. She wants you (Rivers people) to die of water-borne diseases, in the name of politics. Holy Ghost fire.

    “They are quarrelling with Amaechi and they want you (Rivers people) to die the death of Amaechi. I will not die. I drink bottled water. You do not drink bottled water. So, the best I can do for you and the best that the President can do for you, because he is your President, is to ask the World Bank, we hereby sign this document, that in 40 years, Rivers State will pay you your money, but they have refused to sign, just because of politics.

    “If they tell us that it is AFDB, tell them I said it is both AFDB and the World Bank and we have completed everything we need to complete. All parties are ready, including the AFDB and the World Bank. They do not want to sign. They want you to die of water-borne diseases.”

    The Rivers governor spoke also of the metaphor of the broom – Amaechi studied Literature at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) – stressing that the broom would sweep out dirt, but while sweeping, the sweeper must bend down.

    He noted that the sweeper must suffer a bit and in suffering, the broom would be sweeping, but at the end, the house would be clean. He urged his teeming supporters to prepare to suffer under the current government, but assured them that come 2015, things would get better.

    Amaechi said: “One of our sons, a Kalabari son, said that the oil wells were taken under Rufus Ada-George (former Rivers governor, from Okrika). Tell him I said he is lying. He has never been in government.

    “I served in Rufus Ada-George’s government. There was no oil well taken from Rivers State. I served in Dr. Peter Odili’s government. The oil wells were taken in 2006. They put the money in an escrow account.

    “By 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, they took all the money from the escrow account and gave to our brothers (in Bayelsa State) and they converted Soku to Bayelsa. My friend and brother in Bayelsa (Governor) said we do not want Soku, we just want the oil wells.”

    The Rivers governor also stated that he was determined to continue to develop the state, adding that truth would prevail at the end.

    The Chief Felix Obuah-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, through the Special Adviser to the Chairman on Media, Jerry Needam, however, alleged that Amaechi was no longer relevant in the Niger Delta state’s political calculation.

    Gen. Buhari said: “I congratulate the people of Rivers State for moving to the APC. The fundamental thing is one Nigeria. In spite of our differences, we have found ourselves as one people. Nigeria is a country with tremendous resources and talented people, but we are unable to organise ourselves to raise this country.

    “The efforts we are making is for Nigeria. We have to put the party firmly on the ground. We will do everything constitutional to make sure that 2015 elections are credible.

    “We are in an extremely difficult position, where a government is lawless. Courageous Amaechi has done well. Let us support him. We are behind his government. We are going to deliver our country democratically come 2015. Nigeria will survive.”

    The interim National Chairman of the APC (Akande) also stated that the last time the leaders of the opposition party were at the Government House, Port Harcourt, they came to persuade Amaechi to join the APC, while describing Rivers as an APC state.

    Akande also presented the opposition party’s flag to the interim Rivers Chairman of the party, Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, a former Rivers Commissioner for Special Duties, while asking him to ensure that the PDP became totally dead in the state.

    While also speaking, Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, described the Rivers governor as a “wonderboy,” while disclosing that it was only on Sunday that Buhari was communicated about yesterday’s journey to Port Harcourt, while he (Buhari) was in Lagos, but rushed back to Kaduna to have a change of clothes and was in the Rivers State capital yesterday morning, ahead of most leaders of the party.

    Tinubu also stated that Akande planned to travel, but because of yesterday’s rally of the APC, he decided to postpone the journey, while lauding the leaders of the party, particularly the members of the House of Representatives, whom he said at the threat of the fraudulent declaration of their seats vacant, pulled the courage together and were strongly determined and got into the progressives camp, for the progress and good of Rivers State and Nigeria.

    The former Lagos governor assured the people that members of the House of Representatives who defected to the opposition party that they would “never” regret joining the APC.

    Tinubu said: “The great quality of leadership is the ability to convince his followers and admirers that courage and determination are omnipotent. Amaechi, thank you. Few weeks ago, we came and we said we wanted you in our party, because of your courage, achievements and strong determination to liberate humans from the shackles of oppression, mismanagement and misgovernance.

    “Thank you, for overcoming the primordial blackmail, all the plans and punishment available in the rank of the oppressors. We salute Rotimi Amaechi, because without your courage, determination, perseverance, degree of honesty and the prominent level you are, we will not witness today (yesterday) in Rivers State. You are no chicken; you are an eagle.

    “The great people of Rivers State, the Save Rivers Movement and many other movements, today is the launch of the broom revolution. We want to sweep the evil away from Rivers State. We are here to sweep corruption away from Rivers State. We are here to sweep the abuse of power away from Rivers State.

    “We are here to be with you, to help you clean the cobweb of lies, the cockroach of destruction, the termites of democracy, the enemies of progress and usurpation of power. Your courage is the answer.”

    The APC leader (Tinubu) also urged members of the opposition party in the state not to submit to intimidation, stressing that he had experienced it before, but he is a very proud man today.

    The ex-Lagos governor reiterated that the APC now has 16 governors. More will join the camp of the progressives and the challenge would be for the leaders to liberate the people, he said.

    Ikimi, who is also a patron of the Save Rivers Movement, in his remarks, noted that Amaechi was fully in charge of Rivers State and had taken a giant step forward, while embracing change.

    The national vice chairman, Southsouth, of the APC, stated that the NGF chairman had given Nigerians the opportunity of having an idea of what would happen in the country in the next few months, declaring that there would be fundamental change in Nigeria, describing the APC as a true national party.

    He assured the people that more states in the Southsouth would soon be taken over by the APC, to bring about the desired change in Nigeria, thereby putting an end to misgovernance in the country.

    Ikimi declared that persons parading themselves as leaders of the Southsouth were hangers-on and impostors, who were deceiving and taking money from President Jonathan, while asking him (the President) to chase them away.

    The APC’s national vice chairman, Southsouth, later inaugurated the 37-member interim executive of the opposition party in Rivers State, with Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya as the chairman, while urging them to ensure that the opposition party was firmly rooted in the state.

    Ikanya, earlier in his welcome address, stated that Amaechi’s entrance into the APC had brought the entire Rivers State into the opposition party, while declaring that the PDP no longer existed in the state.

    The chairmen of the 23 local government areas of Rivers State, led by the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers chapter, Chimbiko Iche Akarolo, came with thousands of their supporters to the stadium, and were singing, drumming and dancing.

    Akarolo, who is also the Chairman of Port Harcourt Local Government Council, described Amaechi as the symbol and pillar of democracy in Nigeria, assuring them that the people would continue to support him.

    The Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Save Rivers Movement, Igo Aguma, stressed that the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) was to secure the future of Rivers people, while insisting that Soku is in Rivers State.

    Aguma noted that he and other leaders of the PDP decided to move to the APC to get the Soku oil wells back to Rivers State, while lamenting that the Amaechi’s administration had so far spent N130 billion on Federal Government’s roads in Rivers State, without refund, while similar funds were being refunded to other state governments, describing it as double standard and injustice.

    The Save Rivers Movement boss also lamented the refusal of the Federal Government to release the $1 billion for Ogoniland’s development, recommended by the United Nations’ Environment Programme (UNEP), in view of the four LGAs’ (Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme’s) years of pollution and marginalisation.

    Aguma described the list of injustice done to Rivers State and its people as very long, while assuring that they would continue to support Amaechi and fight with him.

     

     

     

     

    The Rivers PDP, yesterday in an online statement, titled: “Port Harcourt APC Rally: An Eye Opener To Amaechi – PDP,” alleged that the near empty stadium that greeted the Rivers governor’s guests, whom it said were mobilised to witness his official declaration for the APC, was enough counsel that Amaechi was no longer relevant in the Rivers political calculation.

    The PDP said: “The poor turnout of supporters that marked the APC’s rally, which left the only 14,000 capacity stadium yawning for occupation, should be a source of worry to Governor Amaechi, who had earlier boasted of over 40 million crowds.

    “Even with the scanty turn-out, those that attended the rally were mainly a rented crowd, who were pad N30,000 each by Amaechi’s council chairmen under duress.

    “The surprise package has forced a bewildered Amaechi to claim that today’s event is no longer a declaration rally, but to announce that the Federal Government is ruling with impunity.

    “Is mere observation or announcement of one’s assumption enough reason to bring the national executive of the APC, including a former Head of State, to Rivers State, for a rally at this busy period of Christmas?”

    The Rivers PDP also described as a contradiction, in 2011, while Amaechi was addressing a political rally in Port Harcourt and openly declared that those who were carrying brooms were night soil-men and juju priests, stating that a juju priest should have no place in a Christian state like Rivers.

    The Obuah-led PDP also advised persons allegedly rented to fill the empty stadium as APC’s supporters, with the promise of monthly salaries through the SURE-P, to beware of a man, who would allegedly change his statements every minute.

  • No comment on Jonathan’s letter, says Obasanjo

    No comment on Jonathan’s letter, says Obasanjo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has foreclosed any reaction to President Goodluck Jonathan’s reply to his highly controversial open letter.

    Dr. Jonathan replied Obasanjo’s letter on Sunday, denying the claims made by the ex-President in his December 2 letter.

    Among the allegations by Obasanjo is that 1,000 Nigerians are on a political watch list and that snipers are being trained ahead of the 2015 elections.

    Apart from denying the allegations, Dr. Jonathan said he had referred the matter to security agencies for probe.

    Yesterday, Obasanjo said though he had been inundated with enquiries, “he does not wish to make further comments beyond the contents of his last letter”.

    He spoke through the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 governorship polls in Ogun State, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye.

    Obasanjo said: “Since the publication of the letter written by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, which was in response to the letter earlier written by revered former President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, we have received several requests from local and international media, asking to know Chief Obasanjo’s reaction to Mr. President’s response.

    One, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, acknowledges Mr. President’s letter/response.

    “However, Baba, as he already indicated in his letter of December 2, 2013, does not wish to make further comments beyond the contents of his last letter to Mr. President or react to the said letter/response from Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

    “Let me quote from page 14, paragraph two of Chief Obasanjo’s letter to Mr. President dated December 2, 2013 and titled Before It Is Too Late: ‘I will maintain my serenity, because by this letter I have done my duty to you as I have always done, to your government, to the party, PDP, and to our country, Nigeria.’

    “Two, let me reiterate here, that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has tremendous respect for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Finally, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo sincerely appreciates all of you, my cherished colleagues; gentlemen of the media profession, who have been very upright, ethical and robust on the subject matter.”