The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President Olusegun Obasanjo

  • What happened to power sector cash, by Obasanjo

    FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo is of the view that those who believed his administration wasted $16 billion on power project implementation with nothing to show for it lacked proper understanding.

    In a reply to queries on what happened to the $16 billion power sector funds under his administration, the former president said it was wrong for anybody to reply on what he called “unsubstantiated allegations against him by the then leadership of House of Representatives over the project”.

    Before President Muhammadu Buhari vowed yesterday to probe the multi-billion dollar project, he had in May last year, queried where the funds went.

    The former President, who responded through his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, blamed the query on lack of proper understanding.

    He said:  ”It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information and based on ignorance, suggested that $16 billion was wasted on power projects by “a former President.

    “We believe that the President was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own predecessor but one.

    “While it is doubtful that a President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be pointed out that records from the National Assembly had exculpated President Obasanjo of any wrong-doing concerning the power sector and has proved the allegations as false.

    “For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, “My Watch” in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result.

    “”We recommend that the President and his co-travellers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of My Watch for Chief Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what transpired when the allegation of $16 billion on power projects was previously made.

    “If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will easily understand.

    “”In the same statement credited to the President, it was alleged that there was some bragging by Chief Obasanjo over $16 billion spent on power. To inform the uninformed, the so-called $16 billion power expenditure was an allegation against Chief Obasanjo’s administration and not his claim.

    “The President also queried where the power generated is. The answer is simple: The power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gas turbines that Chief Obasanjo’s successor who originally made the allegation of $16 billion did not clear from the ports for over a year and the civil works done on the sites.

    “”Chief Obasanjo challenges, and in fact encourages, anybody to set up another enquiry if in doubt and unsatisfied with the EFCC report and that of the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal-led ad-hoc committee.”

     

  • Atiku, Obasanjo owe Nigeria explanations on PTDF- Tinubu

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Tuesday said former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar owes Nigerians explanations on alleged mismanagement of the Petroleum Trust Development Funds (PTDF).

    Tinubu said Nigerians need explanation on alleged theft of millions of dollar belonging to the PTDF, which Atiku superintended over during the regime administration of Obasanjo.

    He said it would be a big mistake if Nigerians elect Atiku in the February 16 poll, saying he has nothing to offer other than to sell the nation’s commonwealth.

    According to him: “They want to come back and sell our commonwealth. They promised to create 2 million job for you, and nobody ask them how.

    “When you were there with Obasanjo how many jobs did you create? How many times did Obasanjo say Atiku stole PTDF’s money?

    “The answer he always gave was that his former boss too stole money. Is this the kind of person you want to vote for?”

    He added that PDP are responsible for the electricity estimated billing system “saying their actions to share the electricity company into Generation and DISCO caused the hike in the tariff estimated bill.

    “What is Atiku response and PDP? He said what is wrong if I share Nigeria resources with my friends? Is that what you want them to come back to do”?

    Tinubu, who added that President Buhari deserves reelection due to his sterling records in all sectors, said the President has revived the agriculture sector and sponsored anchored borrowers who have generated over 5.8 million jobs.

    He urged the Ekiti people to vote for massively for Buhari come February 16 to enjoy more the benefits of good governance so as witness a new lease of life.

    Buhari told the crowd of party supporters and admirers who thronged the 12,000 capacity Ekiti Parapo pavilion, Ado Ekiti, the State Capital, that fighting corruption in a nation like Nigeria was a difficult task.

    Buhari added he would never be dissuaded to rid the nation of graft in line with the promise he made in 2015 to sanitise the country.

    President Buhari said he was quite conscious of the promises he made while contesting four years ago, particularly the ones that have to do with corruption, insecurity and resuscitating the economy.

    “We are fighting corruption but it has not been easy. But we told the security agencies to keep watch and ensure that those who have cases to answer do not escape justice.

     “As part of our promises, we are building roads, rail lines, fighting corruption.

    “We introduced Treasury Single Account and increased power  supply so Nigerians can have their own businesses.”

  • So bad a letter

    Former President Obasanjo should write letter that matches his stature as a Nigerian leader

    It has become a fixture of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to resort to the pen and the old but potent medium of letter writing to intervene in Nigeria’s unfolding political spectrum. And he does it to portray himself in two lights. One, he wants his fellow countrymen and women to see him as the indefatigable patriot. Secondly, he stamps himself as the detached patriarch who would guide us out of the folly of our entanglements.

    He has been at it since he stepped out of the podium as a military head of state and handed over power to a civilian leader, the first soldier to do so, even if the electoral process has suffered the slur of heist and hubris. In the long two-decade interval between his stewardship as a military ruler and his advent as a democratic president, he became a sort of critic who drew criticism because he was observed as a cynic who wanted to minimise his successors in order to enrich his stock of achievements as head of state.

    Yet after his civilian efforts, he did not stop. He has railed at Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and now Muhammadu Buhari, his own tenure being the only one naturally immune to any blotch. But under the Buhari watch, he has unleashed two such letters. The first one gave the image of himself as the avuncular rescuer, a sort of subdued messiah who would look rationally at what he considered the brewing tempest in the political atmosphere, economic malaise and security crisis.

    Posting a view that the Buhari administration has lost focus and incapable of pulling the nation out of the doldrums, he also noted that the opposition headlined by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was unable to provide the alternative dynamic. He therefore called for what he called a Third Force, and he made it look even original to him although the phrase and even the idea was mooted to him by other politically motivated individuals, including Olisa Agbakoba. He would rally the Third Force as a sort of therapy for an afflicted polity.

    But not long after that, he started to come back to his own vomit, and associated almost without a sense of opprobrium with Atiku Abubakar, his own sworn foe and his vice president when he was Nigeria’s civilian leader. He had subjected Atiku in the past decade to some of the vitriols of his temper and forsworn any association with him because of his alleged corrupt biography.

    To all intents and purposes, he became a supporter of the PDP even though he helped found the Coalition of United Political Parties famously called CUPP. No wonder the party adopted Atiku as their presidential candidate. He lost his avuncular stature that his earlier letter portrayed him to be.  He also could not shy away from the charge that he had become partisan, and had lost innocence in the 2019 electoral battle.

    It was in that context that he wrote his latest letter, and he primed it with charges and suffused it with rage that contrasted with the subdued aggressiveness of the former. In his new letter, he attacked the president, among others, of three major infractions. One, that he was planning to rig the presidential election in a self-succession bid. Two, he is running the country like a former despot, Sani Abacha. Three, he has refused to fire his “relation” Amina Zakari as a collation officer.

    Obasanjo noted that he had “available” evidence that the Buhari administration was plotting to rig the polls. As a former president, he should not be perceived as unhinged or flippant. Charges make sense only in the context of proofs. The nation awaits his further clarification.

    He charged the president with self-succession. He does not also have evidence here. But this smacks of hypocrisy. He was the president who had played a sublime role in crafting one of our best documents for a constitution but stained it with one of the radical prescriptions for a third term for a sitting president. His charge seemed a way to throw a barb at another in order to secure his innocence. But the chapter is large in our history and no amount of self-righteous white-washing would give him a free way out of blame.

    Abacha was a big and shameless dictator who also gaoled Obasanjo in one of the darkest eras in any country’s history. Yes, the Buhari administration has shown episodes of extra-constitutional excesses to press and civil persons as well as turning against the press and disobeying court orders. But to compare him to Abacha is melodramatic and even inciting. That sort of writing is not expected from any statesman, no less a stature of a man of his standing who has had the opportunity to lead this country in two eras and taken part in tasks to restore peace.

    The worst is the tone of the writing. It reflected an air of desperation and royal hauteur that came across as amateurish. Next time Obasanjo writes a letter, we expect more sobriety and respect for facts and decency.

  • Obasanjo: Elder statesman or political fixer?

    A Nigerian electoral cycle cannot be complete without former President Olusegun Obasanjo inserting himself into the middle of things.

    That is because despite providence assigning him a privileged position as an elder statesman with enduring respect within and without the country, what he really hankers after is to be the nation’s preeminent political fixer.

    His latest epistle on the state of the nation titled ‘Points for Concern and Action’ is a perfect example of this disposition. The said piece which compared President Muhammadu Buhari to the late General Sani Abacha, questioned the competence and integrity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accused Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of corruption and vote-buying among other things.

    The piece reiterated Obasanjo’s assessment of Buhari’s performance as president. He wrote: “It is no use, at this juncture, to keep lamenting about the failure, incompetence, divisiveness, nepotism, encouragement and condonation of corruption by Buhari administration as there is neither redeeming feature nor personality to salvage the situation within that hierarchy.  You cannot give what you don’t have.”

    The ex-president first made his new-fangled contempt for the incumbent public last year when he called on Buhari to perish any thought of a second term. New-fangled, because four years ago he openly endorsed him in his concerted bid to topple then President Goodluck Jonathan.

    As part of that early move to pre-determine the outcome of the 2019 electoral process, Obasanjo denounced the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as damaged beyond redemption, and not fit for the purpose of restoring the country’s fortunes.

    He then dramatically proposed the emergence of a so-called ‘Third Force’ which he was prepared to midwife. Suspicious of this shiny new object which was being dangled before them so close to the next elections, both mainstream and fringe politicians, passed.

    Left carrying the cadaver of his failed ‘Force’, Baba retreated for a season to his Abeokuta hilltop redoubt to collate every political grievance he could lay hands on – no matter how lame – while biding his time. Only the naïve would think that the timing of his most recent intervention was for anything other than ejecting his latest bete noire from office.

    I have heard it said that as elder statesman, Obasanjo has an obligation to speak out on troubling issues in the polity and that the rest of us should patiently digest his message and ignore the messenger.

    I have no problem hearing him out. I equally concede to him the right to freely express himself as a Nigerian citizen – especially an eminent one. But in doing so, he speaks from the exalted position of a former Head of State and now elder statesman.

    Those in his place are very influential and their words attract attention inside and outside the country. It is only fair then that they don’t take undue advantage of their privileged position, and the only way to prevent that is to thoroughly examine both the message and the cleanliness of the hands of the messenger.

    For starters, the very notion of being a statesman suggests the use of language that is restrained, temperate and diplomatic. Obasanjo’s communication is often abrasive, aggressive and often detracts from whatever message he seeks to pass across.

    Rather than be bothered by that, he apparently revels is his ability to be as corrosive as possible – even if that means he, too, becomes the recipient of some pointed insults. Back in 2011, in one public exchange following comments made by former President Ibrahim Babangida in an interview to mark his 70th birthday, called him ‘a fool at 70.’ IBB replied that his one-time commander-in-chief was ‘a bigger fool, a failure and witless comedian.’

    I know we always lament the failures of our leaders but I strain to recollect any time Obasanjo had something generous to say about any of his successors. He has judged everyone from military President Babangida to Buhari and found their performances wanting.

    Even the likes of the late General Shehu Yar’Adua, who was only aspiring to be president, received putdowns in the form of questions about what he forgot in State House that he was returning for. The late M.K.O. Abiola was dismissed as not the messiah the nation was looking for. Apparently, that messiah had come in the form of ‘you know who’ and we didn’t recognise him!

    The censorious tone he often takes suggests that his eight years in office error-free and we lived in heaven on earth in these parts. Many Nigerians would paint a totally different picture.

    What is especially amusing about his latest public statement is the attempt to accuse Buhari of unconstitutional actions. Even if the administration were guilty of the charges, Obasanjo is hardly the one to be lobbing stones when he wrote the manual for undermining the constitution.

    Under him a number of governors were hounded out office using dodgy impeachment procedures. To his shame, the courts restored all the governors that were so removed.

    A couple of weeks ago, former Oyo State Governor, Rasheed Ladoja, in a newspaper interview replayed how, giddy with power, the former president displayed his contempt for the law of the land. He and a couple of other senior PDP politicians had gone to Obasanjo’s Abeokuta home to plead with him to stop the threatened impeachment.

    Ladoja picks up the story. “We went to Abeokuta. I, (Olagunsoye) Oyinlola, (Gbenga) Daniel and (Olusegun) Agagu,” he said. “We went to see him and they said: Baba, you can prevent the impeachment and he said ‘Rashidi, go and resign’. I said no, I won’t resign. He said, ‘Well, if you don’t resign, then you will be removed’. I said no, they can’t remove me because they cannot get two-thirds of the members of the state House of Assembly to remove me. He said ‘two-thirds my foot, the constitution my foot!”

    Admittedly, the fact that Obasanjo abused the constitution does not make it acceptable behaviour for any of his successors. What most people find revolting is the pot calling the kettle names. Hypocrisy is not a word is he’s familiar with.

    Obasanjo is not infallible as we have seen from his botched bid to foist himself on the nation for a third term, as well as the stillbirth suffered by his ‘Third Force.’ That means that his ideas and public interventions must be challenged vigorously – especially where they are calculated to influence electoral outcomes.

    In the recent past, he has been lucky to correctly judge which way the wind was blowing and jump on the bandwagon. He did so successfully in 2015 – but it wasn’t prescience on his part but opportunism. Four years ago it was so obvious that something momentous was about to happen in the polity.

    Granted, the APC were glad to have his endorsement and add his voice to the coalition for change – so they beat the bush path to his door. It is the same way today: with the PDP singing his praises for hanging Buhari out to dry. Truth is, the contest for power is brutal business and the protagonists will co-opt any ally to achieve their ends.

    The success of the 2015 experiment may have encouraged Obasanjo’s latest intervention. He is clearly a man who believes that he has the power to make and unmake rulers in Nigeria. He is also someone who throws his all into his battle: even if it meant making up with his former deputy. He once swore God won’t forgive him if he did that.

    He has made his play with regards to the February 16 election. Now that the battle has been joined, Buhari, Atiku and Obasanjo are all fighting for their political lives.

    If PDP wins, Buhari retires to Daura. An APC victory will not only retire Atiku, it would also abruptly terminate Obasanjo’s reign as the ultimate kingmaker. The ruling party would have achieved victory despite his best efforts to undermine them and they would owe him nothing.

    But whoever wins it is time to question Obasanjo’s letter-writing pastime. While it is not against the law to speak out against your successors, the convention around the globe is that you give them space to govern and leave the people to decide their fate.

    Whether it is in the US, UK, South Africa or Ghana, you don’t find ex-presidents or Prime Ministers engaged in running verbal combat with incumbents.

    That is why Barack Obama isn’t jumping down Donald Trump’s throat, why Thabo Mbeki wasn’t haranguing Jacob Zuma whilst he was in power, and why you don’t hear John Kuffuor or John Mahama excoriating Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, every now and then.

    Hopefully, Baba would give his pen a rest… very soon!

  • Sagay: Obasanjo suffering from power withdrawal syndrome

    Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Chairman Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) on Tuesday said former President Olusegun Obasanjo was suffering from what he called “power withdrawal syndrome”.

    He said Obasanjo lacked the qualities that mark the status of a former President, such as quiet dignity, respect, discretion, decorum, discipline and restraint.

    “Obasanjo does not have a single one of these qualities.

    “We have had a number of former heads of state, namely Gowon, Shagari, Babangida, Abubakar Salami and Jonathan.

    “All of these have exercised discretion, restraint and self-discipline in relation to their successors, but not Obasanjo,” Sagay said.

    According to him, Obasanjo’s “boisterous, aggressive and hectoring attitude” towards succeeding Presidents meant he was suffering from the effects of leaving office.

    “It strikes me as a case of one who has never recovered from the loss of power.

    “By his meddlesomeness, rude and uncouth attitude towards later heads of state, it is clear that he is addicted to a substance called ‘power’, and is angry and resentful towards any other person exercising it,” Sagay said.

    The eminent professor of law recalled that Buhari was not the first President to be attacked by Obasanjo.

    Read also: Seyi Makinde to voters: I will create wealth if elected

    “The truth is that Obasanjo has never recovered from his power addiction and in his own mind, he is the President-General of Nigeria for life,” Sagay said.

    The PACAC chairman said another strange phenomenon is Obasanjo’s capacity to launch vitriolic attacks on his successors allegedly doing what he (Obasanjo) did repeatedly as president “without a thought of his own gross misdeeds; a clear case of amnesia”.

    After recounting some of Obasanjo’s misdeeds, Sagay added: “Obasanjo believes that he can break all rules and ethics but it is a crime for others to even appear to follow his footsteps in that regard.

    “He is a man who is not conscious of a sense of wrongdoing and is probably unaware of the long list of depredations trailing his footsteps.

    “The man is not just immoral, he is worse; he is amoral, i.e., he lacks a sense of right or wrong.

    “Obasanjo is now an old man. It is now imperative that he learns to exercise some discretion and restraint in his public statements.

    “His bombastic, false, misleading and destructive outbursts, are not befitting of a so-called Elder Stateman, even more less of a former president.

    “Obasanjo, let Nigeria be!  Go to Owu and rest!”

  • APC to Obasanjo: Your are hunted by your past

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was being hunted by the ghost of his past and now believe that the Buhari led APC government would replicate his rigging machineries in the forthcoming general elections.

    The party also said that it was an insult to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to sit on the same stage to debate with former Vice President and PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, saying the President does not need the debate as his achievements are there to speak for him.

    Addressing a news conference on Sunday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu said the former President should adjust himself to the reality of the time, saying the APC has no reason to rig the election.

    While assuring Nigerians that the 2019 general elections will be free, fair and credible, Onilu said the vote of Nigerians will count as the President has made it abundantly clear that the elections was not a do or die.

    He said: “When you are dept in a particular thing, it means it is something that you know how to do best. Throughout the eight years of former President Obasanjo, all the elections he conducted and government policies were determined by whatever mood he found himself. All institutions of government were brought under his whims. What he did for those eight years is what is hunting him.

    “He cannot imagine that it is possible for INEC to exercise the statutory independence that he has. We have had about 93 elections since this government came into power and all those elections were conducted without any interference from this government.

    “If there is anything that you want to credit this government with, it is the fact that institutions are allowed to fulfil their mandate without anybody interfering. We can understand where the former President is coming from because his past is hunting him.

    “He must have looked back at the books when he was President and saw that if they use the same method that he used, this is what is going to happen. The 2003 and 2007 elections were nothing to write home about and they happened under former President Obasanjo. We all knew how the elections went.

    “For us in the APC, votes will count. We are going to have a free, fair and credible election. We have no reason to rig election because our achievements speak for us. Former President Obasanjo should adjust himself to the reality of the imminent defeat that is staring him in the face.

    “He has carried himself as the dispenser of our destiny and God is showing him clearly that he has only been lucky and the favour that God has done to him, he is now considering as things he has done for himself.

    “This election will come; it will be free and fair. APC does not have any reason to rig it. You have seen all the rallies we have done and you have seen the folly in the claim by the PDP that the President was going to campaign by proxy.

    “They are the ones now showing the concern nobody need from them that the President is doing too much in terms of the rallies he has been attending. For us, former President Obasanjo should adjust himself to the reality that after February 16, he would realize that he is not God

    Speaking on the absence of the President and the PDP candidate at Saturday’s Presidential debate, Onilu said said Atiku’s real purpose of wanting to appear for the debate was to attack the person of the President and not his programmes and policies and therefore missed an opportunity to sell himself to Nigerians.

    Read also: Why Atiku cannot be trusted – Presidency

    He said: “The President does not have to give any reason for not attending that debate. The debate is one of several platforms to engage with the public and we cannot attend all of them. So, we pick the ones that are most impactful and we are the ones in position to determine the platform we want to use.

    “Debate with who? That is an insult. You want the President to come and debate with who? The debate the President is having is the one he did that morning in Niger state and the people of the state can look forward to a brighter future.

    “The people of this country, anywhere they go can see development and we believe that these developments constitute the debate and the President is already engaging with the public. That debate is important for people who are seeking power and not for the person who has a lot speaking for him already.

    “As fantastic as the debate is, it is only one of the several opportunities to engage with the public. It is left for us to choose the platform we believe will best serve as our interest.

    “Few days before this particular debate, the President was live on television with Nigerians discussing his projects alongside the Vice President. That for us is more important and gives us the platform to say we are different. We are not in the same class with Atiku and PDP.

    “You want us to come and share the same stage with people who ruin this country? To talk about what? The same people who started several projects and they became conduit pipe to steal money and now APC government has come in to fix these projects one after the other and the same party is complaining that APC is completing projects.

    “Is that the same party you want us to sit with and debate? Don’t take Nigerians for granted because they are not stupid. We are not in the same class.

    “Atiku had the opportunity to appear before the nation to give account of his last misdeed and show remorse and apologise to the nation and tell us that you have turned a new leave and no longer a corrupt person.

    “Atiku’s understanding of that opportunity was to see the President physically standing before him and then attack him and not his programmed and policies. That is what he wanted to do and he said he won’t be able to do that if the President was not present. That was scandalous.

    “Just four years ago, when this same opportunity was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari who was then a candidate, he courageously came up and spoke to us about his vision and mission for this country. He presented his programmer even though the then President did not come. President Buhari did not run away like a coward.

    “The original objective of the people who put the debate together is for you to come and present your programmed and point to the weaknesses of the policies and programmers of your opponent and not to attack people.

    “It is very disappointing and a display of arrogance for Atiku to think that other candidates who were at the debate didn’t matter, but only Buhari matters. Even if that was the case, it should be his policies and programmes and not seeing the President there should have given him an opportunity to tear the programmes to pieces.

    “He should tell Nigerians why it was bad for the President to Commission the Baro port on that day which was left abandoned for 16 years. He should have come to tell us that it was not a good thing to complete all the abandoned projects that are being completed by the APC government or that the road to lead to his own Jada Community which he could not rehabilitate for the 16 years they were in government and is being constructed by the APC was not good enough.

    “When Universities were on strike for several months, Atiku as Vice President was busy negotiating Franchise for his university in Yola. It is a dark past that we will never go back to because Atiku is the face of the dark past that this country has witnessed.”

  • Of unruly and shameless legislators

    You would not but wonder how we come to have these types for leaders.

    President Mohammadu Buhari this past week, once again demonstrated why, whether amongst his rambunctious or supine predecessors, or among the indistinguishable assortment of humanity now ogling his office, he will always be the pick of thinking Nigerians who, happily, are in the majority in this country today.

    After continuously running helter skelter, adjourning the business of the legislative branch out of a fear of being swept off their giddy offices, our legislators finally came back few weeks ago and were scheduled to receive the 2019 budget from the President at a joint sitting of the two chambers, which happened in a most riotous fashion on Wednesday, 19 December, 2018.

    Thank God for little mercies.

    Nobody who knows former President Olusegun Obasanjo or his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, well enough, could have doubted that neither would have tolerated the jeering, the idiocy and the outright rudeness which were targeted at the President as he attempted to perform that solemn constitutional function.

    Of course, suffused with tree climbers and sundry liars, and given that  the days of Ghana Must Go bags, full of freshly minted U. S dollars in exchange for budget passage were long gone,  now permanently buried in the bowels of history , their shameful behaviour was not totally unexpected.

    But in the days of yore, if Atiku could at all be restrained, there was no way you could have stopped his boss from planting his palms on the cheeks of cheeky legislators like Diri Duoye (Bayelsa, PDP), Johnbull Shekarau (Plateau, PDP), Boma Goodhead (Rivers, PDP), Kingsley Chinda (Rivers PDP) and Chukwuka Onyema (Anambra, PDP), to mention only a few of the jeering gang.

    But not so Buhari who you would never see fight the piggy fight.

    As The Nation emphasised in its analysis of the thoroughly shameful event: “Buhari stood before them in honour and dignity of an anti-corruption crusader, a reformist and ‘no-to-business-as usual’ leader. He was kingly as he towered above his tormentors and noisemakers, not only in height, but also in responsibility” and, of course, decency. But the pungent analysis was not done as it continued: “National Assembly was a House of Babel yesterday. Decorum was sacrificed on the altar of partisanship. President Muhammadu Buhari and the nation were embarrassed. The parliament became a laughing stock. The legislative/executive feud assumed a new dimension. Hope of cordial relations dimmed. Nigerians were taken aback. Many observers asked in bewilderment: is the Senate and House of Representatives worthy of national pride? His message was ignored, not because it lacked potency. The budget speech fell on deaf ears of many legislators, who may be acting a script. (undoubtedly,  a Dubai pre-planned  conspiracy or isn’t  Saraki Atiku’s campaign Director –General  wanting  anything to embarrass Buhari as if such rascality is capable of winning election) The President’s remarks were interrupted. Some lawmakers were shouting on top of their voices, to the consternation of constituents who viewed the unruly behaviour on television. As President Buhari reeled out his achievements across the sectors, shouts of “no, no no” and “lie, lie lie” filled the air. For the president, it was a test of emotional stability. President Buhari kept his cool. But, as the irritation persisted, he urged calm. As a statesman, he patiently cautioned the unrepentant legislators. “May I appeal to the honourable members that the world is watching us…we are supposed to be above this.” When they would not listen, he added: “You are only messing up yourselves.” A thoroughly well deserved spanking of the unruly adults.

    Rather than take part in their un-parliamentary behaviour, the president became a preacher of sorts; a moral force and an exemplar, bringing back to their senses, those unruly few who did not realise they were being captured  live by the international media.

    You would not but wonder how we come to have these types for leaders. But you do not wonder for too long. Blame Saraki, Atiku etal who plotted the crisis in the Senate from day one. The unfeeling legislature continues to treat its striking workers with disdain even  when they  haul home about N14M monthly  while all  their miserable workers ask for is a  mere pittance, a small fraction  of their wardrobe allowance. It even got so bad one of them who is in jail, carted home over N80M as allowances in the six months since being jailed. Their response to that reprehensible act has been nothing short of sabre rattling. I hope the Attorney –General would  immediately put in place the process of recovering that  humongous amount of money and making everybody complicit, no matter how seemingly important, answerable.

    But far worse is the fact that Saraki has since gone lyrical, lecturing Nigerians you would think he just came back from Harvard Business School. Hear the aspiring ‘Nobel Laureate’ in chicanery:

    “The last three-and-a-half years have been eventful ones at the global level and in our domestic economy. From dips in oil prices to major shifts in the economic landscape, crude oil production shut-ins and security challenges, the economy and Nigerians have been directly impacted by these events.

    “Many businesses closed down and many people lost their jobs during the recent recession. In the same period, we lost innocent citizens to the insurgency in parts of the North East, thousands were displaced, and many lives also lost due to clashes between farmers and herders, in addition to the general hardship unleashed by unstable economic winds.

    “The recovery from the recession is still fragile. The fundamentals underlying the recovery remain weak, and if unchecked, can lead to dire consequences. The economy still runs on oil and very little progress has been made in terms of diversification.

    “As a result, the expansionary budget policy in effect since 2016, which was aimed at raising spending and stimulating growth in the economy, was not matched by achievable revenue targets. The corollary is a higher and rising deficit as well as a considerable debt burden, all due to an unsustainable fiscal stance.

    “The under-performance of independent revenues is straining government’s ability to meet its expenditure, especially investments in critical infrastructure. This further exposes the government to higher deficit levels which have been largely financed by borrowing.”

    Not anywhere in this lengthy thesis would you see him mention anything about a N3.5 billion allegedly laundered from the Paris Club Loan Refund by elements who are no state actors and you wonder how this came through their ever itchy fingers, ordering hundreds of thousands dollar jewellery from Dubai but yet having the Godlessness to talk about poverty in Nigeria. Neither  were we regaled with anything pertaining to  the bloodiest ever bank robbery in Nigeria which saw 33 Nigerians murdered  in cold blood by blood hounds who have since allegedly implicated Mr Lecturer as their armourer. When did the wise saying that you should first remove the log in your eyes before helping to remove the spec in another’s eyes go out of fashion?

    Here is the most perfidious party man ever who thought nothing of selling off his party and thus set off the most intractable executive-legislative disharmony ever in Nigeria. Were Saraki wise, or given to introspection, he should by now be on his knees, begging God for forgiveness, and pleading with Nigerians for pardon.

    One only hopes he will one day, sooner or later, come to the realisation of his heinous crime against fatherland.

  • Jonathan’s My Transition Hours and other stories

    Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained – Thomas M. Cirignano

    Nigeria has entered a new era with former leaders sitting down and burning the proverbial night oil to put down their thoughts and experiences while in office. Perhaps the biggest credit for this should go to former President Olusegun Obasanjo who could be credited with the honour of being the one who opened the floodgate of such a venture. Agree or disagree with his views, he can never be accused of not expressing them.

    Those who are old enough would remember the controversy stirred by his civil war memoir, My Command, and his equally contentious and acerbic Not My Will. This is not to forget his three-volume My Watch. All those who have one way or the other held commanding posts in our nation’s journey and failed to write their memoirs have denied us a very big portion of our history that would have helped us to situate where we are today. The late Nkemba Nnewi, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, promised to write ‘The Book’ about his role in our country’s most chequered period, he never did. General Yakubu Gowon, the biggest player and the central figure in the unfortunate war, has refused (?) to write. His new fangled project is Nigeria Prays.

    The latest addition to this enviable class is former President Goodluck Jonathan who last week while celebrating his sixty first birthday launched his memoir aptly titled My Transition Hours. Since the book was unveiled, the former president has been subjected to a barrage of attacks and commendations from many who this writer is cocksure have not read the book!

    As I was taught in my school, never judge a book by its cover or title. However, from what I have gleaned from the media, many of those who are assailing the former president have not read the book. In fact, many, I believe, are like me; they have not even set eye on the book not to talk of reading it. So where did they get their strong opinions against the book? That is typical Nigerian way of reacting to issues. Many would shout from high heavens to condemn the book and talk copiously about it when they’ve not read it and may never even read a free copy. This is a bad way to react to a memoir or any book for that matter.

    I do not want to fall into the same pit of ignorance that many of those have thrown themselves into. Therefore, for now, I would restrict myself from passing any judgement on the merit or otherwise of the book. But can we have only those who have read it to come out and point out what they think the former president failed to tackle in the book or where he stood fact on its head?

    In all this, I would like to single out and laud the intellectual and factual way the Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, dealt with the issues he disagreed with in the former president’s book. The governor, who, in my own opinion passed a very harsh judgement on the book by describing it as “elementary fiction” and “presidential tale by midday”, is the only one who has shown that he had read the book before passing any judgement.

    The governor in stating where the former president erred pointed out all these paragraph by paragraph and page by page. This is to show that he read it and he is the only one I am taking seriously among all those who have come out to savage the former president for his opinions. The best way to redress this is to call on all those who felt assaulted by Dr. Jonathan’s treatise to write their own version. Mohammed Adoke, the former Attorney General who Jonathan alleged in his memoir was among those who didn’t want him to accept defeat, has promised that “my forthcoming book will address the issue most comprehensively.” We are waiting for him and other people involved to write their own memoirs as a way of helping to shape our thoughts of the events that led us to our present state.

    In the meantime, all those our Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka once described as “Internet millipedes” should back off and go and read the book or write their own, rather than kicking those who have summoned courage to put pen to paper.

    Happy reading.

  • PDP and the plea for forgiveness

    The top policy-makers of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) think, in self-delusion, that they can take for a fool’s ride the swarming number of Nigerian workers, tax-payers and voters whenever they so desire.

    That, truly, was the attitude that they betrayed when, in what was an after-thought or shallow show of remorse, for nearly two decades of maladministration, by the PDP, they unsealed their beaks and begged Nigerians to forgive them.

    Since Nigerian voters are no fools, it’s doubtful whether they will hearken to the plea of the PDP for a long time to come. Recall that the sixteen years of the PDP administration, which featured President Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, was the longest by any democratically-elected political party in the history of this country.

    Recall, also, that out of a misplaced sense of security and invincibility or an exaggerated sense of privilege, the same top-policy makers of the PDP, parroted, for a fairly long time – in a show of arrogance – that their party would “govern or rule Nigeria for sixty years”. The party succeeded in governing for only a quarter of its leader’s projection.

    By the PDP’s plea to Nigerians for forgiveness, the party’s chairman, Uche Secundus, who made the plea did so from the mistaken belief that Nigerians have no sense of history. And even if Nigerians were to give a nod to that plea, the PDP leaders should not delude themselves that they would be brought back to power in 2019. Is it that the PDP wants to come back to power to continue with crass leadership, especially gargantuan corruption for which it was – and still is – famous?

    The PDP does not deserve to be forgiven by Nigerian voters who it has hurt so badly. If it were, indeed, remorseful – that it had sloughed its ugly wasteful financial habit, it should not have dollarized its recent Port Harcourt convention.

    That dollar jamboree was an indication that the PDP leaders would rather the Naira sinks in exchange to the dollar. Besides, Nigerian voters are waiting anxiously for the PDP leaders to convince them that their presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is not being economical with the truth concerning his tax declaration.

    That’s the same Atiku who was, for eight years, Nigeria’s vice-president. He is a nomadic politician who has flirted with diverse political parties in his bid to become president. He should tell Nigerian voters his role in the poor performance of the PDP up to the period when the recent recession set in.

    Given the harrowing experience of bad leadership, under the PDP, Nigerians – especially voters – have come to the conclusion that there is a grave danger in forgiveness. They have resolved never again to trust the PDP, rather so naively as they did to have allowed it to misdirect the affairs of the country for nearly two decades.

    And if the leaders of the PDP were, indeed, contrite for their maladministration between 1999 and 2015, they should realize that Nigerians now have a renewed sense of history. Therefore, Nigerians would rather the Buhari administration be given a second chance so that he would remain in power until 2024.

    Hopefully, within the distance, Boko Haram would have been history, that it rightly deserves, and the economy back firmly on its feet based, primarily, on a robust contest between agriculture and crude oil.

    Nigerian tax-payers, whose tax money was squandered, and voters, whose invested trust and confidence in the party were shattered, have resolved that the PDP as a party and its leaders should be denied further role in the politics of the Fourth Republic; into the political Siberia should they all be sent. That was the ringing statement that they made in 2015, when the voted massively for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    And yet, as most Nigerians who cast their vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Muhammadu Buhari – its presidential candidate in the 2014 elections, would honesty attest, the unusually long years of the PDP dominance of the Nigerian political firmament was an agonizing period of the locusts. And the ugly effects are still being felt today: if, it’s not the recession that the PDP bequeathed the Buhari administration, it was the culture of mindless and flagitious looting of the country’s treasury by its members at all three tiers of government.

    If it was not Dasukigate – a corrupt and treacherous betrayal of public trust, in which more than two billion dollars meant for the motivation of the Nigerian military and purchase of top-class materiel for its operatives was shared amongst a handful of top PDP officials, it’s the ongoing insurgency by the Boko Haram terrorists group, the attendant destruction of life and property in mainly the North-East geo-political zone and the kidnap of Chibok and Dapchi school girls in the region.

    Time there was, during the sixteen years of the PDP administration, when Nigeria was so buoyant that crude oil – upon which her economy was heavily dependent – sold for nearly $150. Whatever happened to all that huge funds? The PDP leaders should explain in detail to the Nigerian tax payers and voters that they expect to vote for them in 2019 general elections.

    Sixteen years of PDP administration was, therefore, a grossly mismanaged opportunity for political advancement and sustainable economic opulence. With such an egregious record of criminal profligacy in the management of the economic fortunes of the country, why should the PDP, however deep its contrition, be ambitious to govern this country again? With the PDP’s poor performance, Nigerians were bitten by a venomous snake and they have always been suspicious, since then, each time they saw a rope.

    Whichever way you look at it, the PDP would go down in the history of political development in Nigeria – for as long as the Fourth Republic lasts, say – as the party to have proudly invented or invited terrorism of a monstrous proportion – a la the Boko Haram group – to the country.

    Left to the PDP, amidst Dasukigate, Boko Haram would have been a way of life: let there be countless camps of internally displaced persons; let villages be torched or flattened by impoverished explosive devices (IEDS) and let there be an open field of deserted villages and towns.

    But it’s on record that for his gallant fight against Boko Haram, Dasukigate and ocean-deep corruption, and that very well explains why at, Buhari was crowned as the continent’s foremost fighter of corruption a recent summit of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The PDP should be thanked for its gargantuan corruption which not only made that unique crown possible, but also sharpened Buhari’s integrity profile!

    On account of the huge corruption perpetrated by the PDP, it’s been argued that Nigeria’s economic development has been set back by nearly 30 years. Indeed, the World Bank and some development economists figure that given the depth to which the PDP has drawn the Nigerian economy, it would require nearly $280 billion, in the next twenty years, to rebuild the devastated parts of the North-East geo-political zone, re-tool the country’s four refineries so that they could be efficient to purify crude oil for local consumption in place of wasteful importation of the product, improve upon security, roads, health centres, education and reactivate such ports of Warri, Onne, Koko, Port Harcourt, so as to ease the huge burden on the Lagos ports.

    It’s to the credit of the Buhari administration that it unearthed the Dasukigate. Otherwise, what the PDP meant by Dasukigate was that it could plunder the Nigerian treasury at will and go almost unscathed. And, so, let the country’s military be starved of sorely-need funds and the Nigerian economy should, naturally, collapse.

    If Nigeria was going to be a failed state – a country in which insecurity reigns supreme and teeming graduates of tertiary institutions roam the streets, in search of non-existent jobs, so be it.

    • Uzuakpundu, a former senior editorial staff with the Daily Times, writes from Lagos.

  • Obasanjo: only the guilty should be worried – FG

    The Federal Government has dismissed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegation of frame-up and impending arrest as groundless and the concoction of a mind worried by guilt.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the government response in Lagos today, saying the Buhari Administration will not be distracted by frivolous allegations from any quarter, especially those cleverly choreographed
    to divert attention from a widely-acclaimed presidential proclamation
    and to shore up support for a waning and egotistical cause.

    The Minister said the administration is too busy trying to clear the mess of 16 years and build on its unprecedented achievements over the past three years than to waste its energy and time on framing up anyone or dwelling on issues
    that are not grounded in fact.

    He said while those who have skeletons in their wardrobes should be afraid, even of their own shadows, innocent persons need not worry about any investigation, whether real or imagined.

    ”This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens. That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration. Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an in-law to the cold hands of death.

    ”The administration is also strongly committed to the tenets of democracy, including freedom of speech and the right to dissent. But we understand that those who, in their time, were untethered to those principles would find it hard to believe,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

    The Minister said it was curious that the frame-up and witch-hunt allegations came a day after a major presidential proclamation reversing some past acts of injustice was made, to the relief and acclamation of a long-expectant nation.

    ”Apparently, the impact of this proclamation was too much to bear by those who, through acts of omission or commission, helped to deepen the wounds inflicted by the blow of injustice that followed the annulment of an election that was widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible, hence they felt the need for a red herring that will distract the nation.

    ”Added to that is the frustration brought about by the fact that the contraption they have so much hyped as a freeway to power has failed to gain traction. Faced with this double tragedy, even the strongest of men may begin to succumb to a figment of their imagination. They may start crying wolf where there is none,” he said.

    Mohammed said the unprecedented achievements of the Buhari Administration are also enough to cause sleepless nights, with the attendant symptoms that include phantasm, for those who had better opportunities to make the country great but floundered on the altar of narcissism.

    The Allegation by Obasanjo:
    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday cried out over allegations that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is planning to arrest him, saying his name is already on its security watch-list.
    Obasanjo alleged that the government is planning to arrest him over his hard stance against the government.

    In a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said he got credible intelligence that his name has been placed on the security watch-list and there is a plot to assassinate him.

    The former President however insisted that he would not be cowed into jettisoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of Nigerians.

    According to the statement, part of the ground design was to seize the former President’s international passport and then throw him in detention to prevent him from further criticizing the President.

    Obasanjo also said another plot being hatched against him was to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to re-open investigation into the activities of his administration using false witnesses and documents.

    “This will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief Obasanjo was one of the principal victims”, he added.

    “Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with a response but for the fact that many of these informants are not known for flippant and frivolous talks.

    “This government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives and property in many states of the country, the office cannot be indifferent.

    “We are currently in a nation where the Number Three citizen is being harangued and the Number Four citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government they serve.

    “There is a groundswell of our nationals that live in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, maimed or even killed as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.