“Nigeria is bleeding and the
hemorrhage must be stopped,” Mr. Obasanjo said in the 18-page
letter dated December 2, 2013.
He said Mr. Jonathan has failed to
deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people, stem corruption, promote
national unity and strengthen national security.
He said 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 detailed letter, dripping of
anger , frustration and what appears a genuine concern to rescue a nation on
the brink, 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.
Without mincing words, Mr. Obasanjo
blamed Mr. Jonathan for the crises tearing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, apart.
He said apart from using party
chairman Bamanga Tukur to cause multiple crises and divide the ranks of the
party, the president’s failure to keep a promise he made not to seek a second
term is also generating tension within the ruling party.
“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 viwed 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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