ABUJA — Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that former
President Goodluck Jonathan from his first days as President showed he
was too small for the office, saying he, Obasanjo, acted more as an
opponent of Jonathan than a supporter of Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the
2015 presidential poll...
Ex President Jonathan and Gen. Obasanjo (Rtd)
Obasanjo,
who said Jonathan deceived him that he would not give Mrs. Diezani
Allison-Madueke the petroleum portfolio in his cabinet was deceived into
believing that he could use money to buy the 2015 presidential
election.
Obasanjo in the book, Against the Run of Play: How an
Incumbent President was defeated in Nigeria, written by former
presidential spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, also revealed that Jonathan was
gripped by the fear that Buhari, as president, would jail him or lead
him to an early grave.
In the 204-page book, former President
Jonathan is himself quoted as saying he could not be held accountable
for provocative remarks made by some of his supporters, even as former
Senate President, David Mark, is also quoted in the book as alleging
that he forewarned the former president about the alleged conspiracy
against him in the north but to no avail.
Problems of minority agitation
Obasanjo
in the book is quoted as saying that following Umaru Yar’Adua’s death
in 2010, he endorsed Jonathan for the 2011 presidential election
principally to solve the problems of minority agitation in Nigeria.
The
former President said: “I saw the emergence of Jonathan as an
opportunity to solve the problem of minority agitation. The three
majority ethnic groups in Nigeria can always sort themselves out but not
so for the minority. A good example is my state here in Ogun.
“Despite
the best of intentions, nobody from Ogun West has been able to become
governor because of this minority issue and it will take a conscious
effort to make it happen. So, it was in the context of that I had to
plead with prominent people in the North to allow Jonathan run for a
term.”
I warned him not to make Diezani petroleum minister
But
in a tone laden with regrets, Obasanjo pointed out that there were
certain things Jonathan did that fell below his expectations as a former
president.
“There were certain decisions taken by Jonathan very
early in his administration that pointed to the fact that the office was
bigger than him and one of them was the appointment of a petroleum
minister,” he said.
According to Obasanjo, he cautioned Jonathan
not to appoint Diezani Alison-Madueke to such a sensitive sector but the
president ignored his counsel.
“Jonathan gave me the impression
that he was not going to give her the portfolio but at the end he did
and we can see the consequence. He, of course, knew what he was doing,”
Obasanjo stated.
Why I opposed Jonathan
The former
president also hinted at what riled him against Jonathan and why he
parted ways with him in the run up to the 2015 election, a development
which has given the impression that he was actively working in support
of Buhari’s candidature. But Obasanjo denied any direct support to
Buhari.
He said: “I didn’t join them in supporting Buhari; I
joined in opposing Jonathan so Buhari was just a beneficiary of my
opposition to Jonathan since my position was AOBJ: meaning Any Option
But Jonathan.”,
Obasanjo explained that Jonathan and his handlers
believed that they could buy the last election and that they were so
arrogant about it that the PDP would print only one nomination form for
him and him alone. He said: “If he was wise, he would have yielded the
ticket to somebody else in the PDP.”
Jonathan was not really afraid about life after office but Buhari
The
former president, who also criticised the role played by the military
in the last election, said he suspected that Jonathan was not really
afraid about life after office but Buhari, his successor.
“I
believe the President’s concern or fear is not about life after office
per se, because he and I have had occasions to talk about this both
seriously and jovially. I believe the President’s fear is particularly
motivated by the person he sees as his likely successor, that is General
Buhari. I believe the people would have been telling him that Buhari is
a hard man; he would fight corruption and he (Jonathan) may end up in
jail if not in the grave,” Obasanjo narrated in the book.
The
book also placed the defeat of Jonathan at the 2015 poll on the
utterances of those close to the former president, chief among them
being his wife, Patience.
The book recalls the allegation by
former Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, accusing the former first
lady of insulting the North with incendiary language, thereby alienating
them from Jonathan during the election.
It quoted Mrs. Jonathan
as making a denigrating remark against Almajiri in the north, by saying
“Our people no dey born children wey dem no dey count. Our men no dey
born throw way for street; we no dey like people from the other side”,
an apparent reference to the concept of Almajiri common in the north.
Reminded
in the book that some persons close to him, especially Chief Edwin
Clark and Asari Dokubo, were rather vocal and provocative in their
utterances, Jonathan wondered why he should be held accountable for
their personal opinions.
The former president retorted: “Okay,
let us agree for the sake of argument that Chief Clark and the others
were offensive, what about those from other ethnic groups who were also
making incendiary statement about my person with insinuations about
people who wear bowler hats?
“I am not defending whoever may have
crossed the line among Ijaw people but let us be fair, why should I be
held accountable for that and you would not hold other leaders
accountable for what politicians from their own ethnic groups also said?
he queried.
On why Jonathan lost the election, former Senate
President, David Mark, said that he saw the defeat coming and had
pointed out the unrealistic voting projections made by the party about
the North to the former president and the conspiracy against him but he
was not taken seriously.
He said Jonathan should have seen the
handwriting on the wall and done something about what was pointed out to
him but no action was taken.
Mark lamented, “I saw it and at
difference times, I pointed out to him and the party that the
projections being made by some people around the president about what
the voting pattern in the north would were wrong.
“I could see
the conspiracy and the gang-up building up in the north against the
aspiration of Jonathan but my voice was drowned out by those who took
it for granted that a sitting president, and one from PDP, could not
lose,” Mark said.
The former Senate President also mentioned that
the former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, was also aware that Jonathan
was not strong in the North but apparently had little to say in the
campaign to re-elect Jonathan.
“Some people were deceiving the
president with the kind of false scenarios they were painting for him.
The VP could see the conspiracy but I don’t know how much influence he
had on the campaign. Why Jonathan couldn’t see it until it was too late
is what I find difficult to understand,” Mark pointed out.
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