In the letter titled, “Before it is too late” that rather
than take steps to advance Nigeria’s interest and up the standards of living of
Nigerians, Mr. Jonathan had betrayed God and the Nigerian people that brought
him to power, and has been pursuing selfish personal and political interests
based on advice he receives from “self-centred aides”.
In the letter, Mr. Obasanjo lamented that Mr. Jonathan had become terribly
divisive and clannish, destroying his own party, polarizing the country along
regional and religious lines and ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of nations.
“It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman (Tukur)
for all that goes wrong with the party,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “The chairman is
playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). But the paymaster is
acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem to be the
major ingredients.”
“Up till two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told
anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the
signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said
the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a
fool would believe that statement you made to me judging by what is going on. I
must say it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more
honorable path.”
The former President said Mr. Jonathan told him before the 2011 election he
would not seek a second term, and made the same promise to governors, party
stakeholders and Nigerians.
The president’s refusal to keep that promise cast him as a man without honour,
Mr. Obasanjo said.
Saying it would be “fatally morally flawed” for Mr. Jonathan to contest in
2015, Mr. Obasanjo added, “As a leader, two things you must cherish and hold
dear among others are trust and honour both of which are important ingredients
of character. I will want to see anyone in the Office of the Presidency of
Nigeria as a man or woman who can be trusted, a person of honour in his words
and character.”
Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of anti-party conducts – supporting
opposition parties’ candidates in governorship elections in Lagos, Ondo, Edo
and Anambra states at the detriment of PDP’s own candidates –, and of pitting
party members against one another.
Saying the President had failed to address the underlying causes of the Boko Haram
menace, Mr. Obasanjo urged Mr. Jonathan to adopt a carrot and stick approach in
dealing with the insurgency explaining that “conventional military actions
based on standard phases of military operations alone will not permanently and
effectively deal with the issue of Boko Haram”.
Mr. Obasanjo also tackled Mr. Jonathan for allegedly being clannish. “For you
to allow yourself to be “possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion of most of the
rest of Nigerians as an “Ijaw man” is a mistake that should never have been
allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be
Nigerian if not naturalized but the Nigerian President must be above ethnic
factionalism. And those who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’ are not
your friends genuinely, not friends of Nigeria nor friends of “Ijaw nation”
they tout about.
“To allow or tacitly encourage people of “Ijaw nation” to throw insults on
other Nigerians from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone
to protect your interest as an Ijaw man is myopic and your not openly quieting
them is even more unfortunate.
Two Ijaw men, ex-militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and a former federal
commissioner for information, Edwin Clark, who carries himself around as the
political godfather of the president, are known to talk down on people opposed
to the president.
Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of placing over 1000 Nigerians on
political 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 killers”.
He wondered why the Presidency was providing assistance for a murderer to evade
justice.
“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,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “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.”
Mr. Obasanjo did not mention the name of the murderer he accused the President
of protecting but he seems to be referring to Hamza Al-Mustapha, a former
security aide to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who is facing trial
for allegedly masterminding the killing of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Moshood
Abiola, the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election.
Mr. Al-Mustapha was freed by the appeal court in July but the Lagos state
government has since appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.
The former President also called on the National Assembly to rise up and take
decisive action over the recent allegation in the country that the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit billions of dollars in proceeds
of crude oil sales to the federation account.
“This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing
possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo told the President. “Please deal with
this allegation transparently and let the truth be known.”
“The dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will one
day be public knowledge. Those who know are watching if the National Assembly
will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand corruption. May God
grant you the grace for at least one effective corrective action against high
corruption which seems to stink all around you in your government.”
Mr. Obasanjo said he wrote the letter in the national interest, saying nothing,
at this stage of his life, would prevent him from standing up for whatever he
considers to be in the best interest of Nigeria, Africa and the world.
He said he was ready for whatever backlash his letter would provoke from the
presidency.
“Knowing what happens around you most of which you know of and condone or deny,
this letter will proke cacophony from hired and unhired attackers but 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…,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
“I have passed the stage of being flattered, intimidated, threatened,
frightened, induced or bought… Death is the end of all human beings and may it
come when God wills it to come.”
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