Our Reporter
Sunday, February 15, 2015
| |
|
|
FROM SEGUN OLATUNJI, ABEOKUTA
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday broke his silence over the state of the nation, accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of a grand plan to extend his tenure.
He also accused President Jonathan, his aides and associates of planning to destabilize the country, if he failed to win the March 28 presidential election.
Obasanjo who had been away from the country for
over a week and only returned to his Hilltop Mansion in Abeokuta on Friday, said he had been constrained to break his silence now instead of his earlier promise to do so after the conduct of the general elections earlier scheduled for February 14, but postponed to March 28 by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The former president alleged that the postponement of the elections, which was forced on INEC, was part of the "grand plan" by Jonathan, his aides and associates to extend the incumbent president's stay in office by "hook or crook."
He therefore accused Jonathan and his aides of alleged plans to foment trouble and create chaos in the country, if the president failed to get a second term.
Obasanjo described claims of the inability of the service chiefs to provide security during the elections as a "bad precedent for democracy in Nigeria," adding that Jonathan's failure in his function as the Commander-in-Chief of the country's Armed Forces was a "dereliction of duty, pure and simple."
He likened the current situation in the country to what a former President of Cote d'Ivoire, Laurent Gbago did, especially the incessant postponement of the dates of the elections for that country until he was sure of his chances.
He words: "While I was out, I refused to make any categorical statement on this issue because I wanted to come back home and learn first hand what actually transpired and what was going on, and it turned out to be a forced decision on the INEC because it was alleged that the security chiefs were unable to provide security and as a result the Chairman of INEC had to postpone the elections in accordance with the dictates of the so-called security chiefs.
"For me, that was bad precedent for democracy in Nigeria. It means it doesn't matter what preparations or lack of preparations any electoral body could make in Nigeria. The final decision whether election will take place on the day scheduled for it, lies in the domains of the security. It is a sad day for democracy in Nigeria.
"And I will say this, we must all feel concerned before democracy is killed. The observable and what would appear to be happening is that the president has a grand plan, a grand plan to ensure that by hook or by crook, he wins the election or if it all fails, they scuttle it and create chaos, confusion and unpleasantness in the whole country.
"Because it is the duty and function and responsibility of the security officers to provide security, the President is the Chief Security Officer of the country and he is the Commander-in-Chief and if security is required anywhere, anytime, it is his duty to provide it; failure to provide it is dereliction of duty, pure and simple.
"Either the President is following his own grand plan or his aides and associates are working a script, they are playing a script which must not get his endorsement, if not initiated from him.
"What again it looks to me is that the President is trying to play Gbagbo. Gbagbo was the former President of Cote d'Ivoire and Gbagbo made sure he postponed the election in his country until he was sure he would win and then allowed the election to take place. He got an inconclusive election in the first ballot and I believe this is the sort of thing Nigeria may fall into if I am right in what I observed as the grand plan and then in the run-off, Gbagbo lost with 8 per cent behind Ouattara and then refused to hand over. All reasonable persuasion and pleading were rebuffed by him and he unleashed horror in that country until nemesis caught up with him.
"I believe that we may be seeing the repeat of Gbagbo or what I call Gbagbo saga here in Nigeria, I hope not."
Obasanjo however observed that Jonathan's desperation to extend his tenure in office could be attributed to his fear of being succeeded by the presidential standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
"I believe the president's concern or fear is not life out of office per se, because he and I have occasions to talk about this both seriously and jovially. I believe the President would want an opportunity to disengage peacefully and have a nice, decent and glorious exit. I believe the President's fear is particularly motivated by who he sees as his likely successor, that is General Buhari. I believe people would have been telling him that Buhari is a hard man, he would fight corruption and you may end up in jail if not in grave. I believe people must have told him all sorts of things and he is not the only one. There are other people who may be afraid of Buhari, but why? I would say that Buhari has learnt his lessons, if he hasn't learnt his lessons, then he would be probably the most unlearning human being.
"I don't think the President is afraid of being out, there's life after Aso Villa. It may depend of course, to a large extent, on how his descent takes place and how his exit takes place. Because out there in the international world, there's so much need for the wisdom and experience of people who have done it before. They also want people who are creditable and credible," he said.
On Buhari, the former president said, "If he has learnt his lessons, he would know that you do not fight corruption by putting people in jail for 200 years and this has been done by my own predecessor in office, General AbdulSalami Abubakar. He recovered over US$750 million from Abacha's estate without putting anybody in jail, without hurting or harming anybody. When I took over, we recovered over US$1.25 billion from the same Abacha estate without hurting anybody, without harming anybody and in fact what would be rather unfortunate is the fact that our lawyer who is still alive, who was chasing this money all over the world, said to us that there's still about US$1billion to be recovered from the Abacha estate but the unfortunate thing is that my successor did not do anything about it, even though it was in my handing over note."
Obasanjo however warned Jonathan not to take any action that could negatively affect Nigeria's democratic process. He also advised Jonathan to stop listening to those trying to create the fear of Buhari in him.
"I will, at this juncture, offer some warnings, but let me also offer some appeals. The first appeal is to President Goodluck Jonathan. I appeal to him not to do anything to destroy the fledgling process that we are enjoying. Democracy is not a destination, it is a process and the more we strengthen the process of democracy, the institutions and factors, the better it is for us and we will continue to improve on it. "Again, I appeal to President Jonathan not to listen to those who are creating phobia of Buhari, phobia of enquiry and all that. President Jonathan has done well to the best of his ability and he has made history as the first elected Nigerian from a minority tribe and nobody can take that away from him. He can even make a second history, if it turns out that way, if he contests a fair, free and transparent election and if he loses to have a dignified descent and a dignified exit. He will be at the mountaintop and he would be acclaimed as a true patriot and a true democrat. What stops him from doing this?
Obasanjo also appealed to Buhari to be magnanimous if he eventually emerged victorious in the forthcoming elections.
"I also will like to appeal to General Buhari; if the election takes place, I sincerely hope that it will take place, and if he happens to win, his first responsibility is to allay the fears of those who see Buhari as a bully, as a threat, particularly in the areas of human rights, in the areas of rule of law, and in the areas of obedience to our Constitution."
He also tasked the ruling PDP, the major opposition APC and all Nigerians on their "responsibility for seeing the continuation of our present democratic process and if any of them does anything to short-circuit or cut r the process, the verdict of history will be very, very drastic.
No comments:
Post a Comment