The president has responded to Former President Olusegun Obasanjo saying that he is frustrated.
The Presidency, which reacted to the ex-leader’s endorsement of Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his attack on President Muhammadu Buhari, said Obasanjo’s constant attacks were borne out of jealousy.
Also taking an exception to Obi’s endorsement, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike described it as a stain on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The Nation reports that a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Dr. Segun Abraham, said Obasanjo’s support for Obi is inconsequential.
Also, the Adviser, Media, Communications and Public Affairs of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Dele Alake, chided Obasanjo for what he described as his false claim of mentorship.
He also berated the former president for prescribing a direction for 2023 while his antecedent showed a disdain for democratic tenets, promotion for garrison politics and his failed third term agenda.
‘Obasanjo jealous of Buhari’
The Presidency flayed Obasanjo for attempting to denigrate the Buhari administration, recalling his records of assault on democracy and litany of failures in office.
Obasanjo had, in his New Year message, described the current administration as “a hell on earth”, adding that Nigerians have “moved from frying pan to fire”.
However, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the Presidency attributed Obasanjo’s comments to jealousy, pointing out that Buhari has succeeded where he failed.
According to the statement titled: “Morally Squalid Obasanjo Attacks Leaders Out of Frustration”, the Presidency gave four reasons why Obasanjo has perpetually been on the offensive against President Buhari.
It said Obasanjo is unhappy that Buhari has set a new record in the nation’s development.
The Presidency also said that Buhari, unlike Obasanjo, has been forthright, obeyed the constitution and fought against corruption.
It said that the former president played politics with national development and, at some point, blatantly lied to Nigerians with respect to some critical projects, one of which was the recently completed Second Niger Bridge in the Southeast.
The statement reads: “Former President Obasanjo is so well known to all that no one needs to describe who he is.
“But, four things we will like to say:
“One is that he will not stop attacking President Muhammadu Buhari because the former President won’t stop being jealous of anyone who beats him to a new record in the nation’s development process.
“President Buhari is ahead of Chief Obasanjo in all fields of national development and to do that is cardinal sin to Obasanjo whose hallucinations tell him that he is the best ever to lead Nigeria and there will never be another one better than him.
“President Buhari just completed the world class edifice that is the Second Niger Bridge after three decades of failed promises. It is now awaiting commissioning.
“Obasanjo laid the sod for the bridge in his first term as elected President and work never started.
“When he sought re-election for his second term in office, he returned to the site to turn the sod for the bridge the second time. When the Obi of Onitsha, forthright and scholarly, reminded him that he had done this in the past, Obasanjo told the foremost Southeast traditional ruler that he was a liar, in the full presence of the Chiefs and Oracles in his palace.
“Obasanjo lied to the Southeast to get their votes. President Buhari didn’t get their votes but built the bridge because he believed it is the right thing to do.”
The Presidency, also pointed out that Buhari has been globally honoured as a true fighter of corruption, going by the track record of the successes achieved in the anti-corruption campaigns since he assumed office.
It recalled the failed projects under the Obasanjo administration, which were linked to corrupt practices.
It said: “President Buhari had been bagging awards and encomiums for trying to do that which the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says a leader should do: serve one, or a maximum of two terms and go.
“President Buhari has been stating and restating that he will supervise a better election than the one that brought him to office and to leave as and when due.
“Having tried tenure elongation and failed, Obasanjo’s fictitious mind must be telling him that he is the one under attack.
“But he is not on President Buhari’s radar because experience has shown, especially lately in West Africa where there have been at least three successful coups and many other failed attempts, that third term or tenure elongation is a recipe for political instability.
“Furthermore, the totality of African leaders appointed President Buhari the Anti-Corruption Champion of the continent.
“You can’t be an anti-corruption champion if ‘you meddled and bent the rules’, carrying the putrid responsibility of what happened to national assets in the name of privatization as documented by the Nigerian Senate in 2011.
“As an insight, the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, which was set up with $3.2 billion, was sold to a Russian firm, Russal, for a paltry $130million. Delta Steel, which was set up in 2005, at a cost of $1.5billion, was sold to Global Infrastructure for just $30million.
“ALSCON got back $120million for the dredging of the Imo River, which was never carried out,” the recalled.
The Presidency also recalled how the democratic process was constantly inhibited by Chief Obasanjo his tenure, allegedly masterminding the upstaging of democratically elected governors who had dared to assert their executive rights.
“Three, which is linked to the one above is the growing profile of President Buhari as the Champion of Democracy not only at home and in the West African subregion but the African continent as whole.
“As President, Obasanjo destabilized internal democracy by orchestrating impeachment after impeachment of governors who were not compliant with his highly imperial administration.
“As we said sometime back, Mr. Obasanjo’s tenure, 1999-2007, represented the dark days of Nigeria’s democracy due to a slew of assaults on the constitution.
“The former president deployed federal machinery to remove Governors Joshua Dariye, Rashidi Ladoja, Peter Obi, Chris Ngige and Ayo Fayose from office. They were the then governors of Plateau, Oyo, Anambra, Anambra and Ekiti, respectively, unjustly removed, using the police and secret service under his control.
“Under him, a five-man legislature met at 6:00 am and ‘impeached’ Governor Dariye in Plateau; 18 members out of 32 removed Governor Ladoja of Oyo from office; in Anambra, APGA’s Governor Obi was equally impeached at 5:00 a.m. by members who did not meet the two-thirds required by the constitution.
“Under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lawmaking powers of the Rivers State legislature were transferred to the federal parliament to punish Governor Amaechi for shifting his political alliance.”
Moreover, Obasanjo damned the Supreme Court and unlawfully held back Lagos State revenues due from federal sources on account of his pettiness against Governor Bola Tinubu.
“On the other hand, in Washington a few weeks ago, the US President Joe Biden at a meeting with African Heads of States and Government described President Buhari as a champion of democracy and role model for the leaders of African states.
“Clearly, Obasanjo has become even more jealous by adopting a vengeful attitude.
“”Four, to say that “frying pan to fire” is the situation in Nigeria at this time should be read to mean a personal experience to him and we know what that means.
“‘Hell’ for Obasanjo is when a President, any President that comes after him refuses to be his own puppet, to do as he wishes on all matters and at all times.
“He then keeps attacking out of frustration.
“Obasanjo’s vengeful attitude towards President Buhari is the height of selfishness and little short of moral squalor.”
Alake, in a piece titled: ‘Lest Nigerian Youths Be Deceived by Obasanjo’s Sanctimony and Revisionism’, said while Obasanjo was wasteful in power, Buhari has been prudent.
He also blamed Obasanjo for institutionalising corruption by inducing federal lawmakers to actualise his third term project.
In Rivers State, Wike said Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi showed that there was something fundamentally wrong with Atiku.
The governor asked Atiku, who was Obasanjo’s vice-president for eight years, and his co-travellers to leave him and other members of the G-5 out of their problems.
Wike spoke yesterday at Itu Bridge Head, the venue of the flag-off of the Akpabu – Odido Road in Emohua Local Government Area.
He said: “I was praying that Obasanjo should not say anything. When I saw the letter last night, I was touched. If your principal cannot recommend you, then, there is something fundamentally wrong.
“After all, you people went to see your principal to lobby him to recommend you. It took your principal a long time before he now wrote a letter to all Nigerians, saying, ‘Look, I am not too comfortable.
“I am not bothered about other people, but this one worked with you and he knows.”
Arguing that a bad product is always difficult to sell, he noted why Obasanjo could not recommend Atiku for the nation’s topmost position.
Wike asked Atiku to be more concerned about the loss of confidence from his former boss and the forthcoming election.
Also yesterday, Tinubu, through the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, said he pitied Obi for the endorsement by Obasanjo.
Tinubu said Obasanjo cannot win his polling unit; hence, Obi is at risk for associating with the former president.
He added in a statement by Onanuga that nobody in Ogun State could rely on Obasanjo to become governor or councillor.
The statement by Onanuga reads: “From our records, President Obasanjo has not successfully made anyone win an election in Nigeria since then.
“Not even in Ogun State can anyone rely on his support or endorsement to become a governor or councillor.
“We pity Peter Obi as we are confident that Chief Obasanjo cannot win his polling unit and ward in Abeokuta for Obi in the coming Presidential election on 25 February 2023.”
Tinubu said Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi was not a “political currency” that the LP presidential candidate can spend in the country.
He stressed that the former president was not “a political force” in Nigeria.
Four APC chieftains – Adamu Garba, Dr. Segun Abraham, Ade Adetimehin and Taofeeq Salam—also flayed Obasanjo’s position, saying that the former president was envious of Tinubu.
Garba, in a post, said Tinubu worked hard for democracy and earned his position, unlike Obasanjo.
Abraham, Adetimehin and Salam said that one thing people must understand is that no one can take away Tinubu’s records.
But, the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council said Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi would make the team to work harder.
Stressing that Atiku was not ruffled by the development, the council pointed out that the PDP would not begrudge Obasanjo for making his choice of a candidate known.
A spokesman for the council, Charles Aniagwu, stated this on an AIT public affairs programme, Kakaaki.
Aniagwu said: “The PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and indeed, our presidential campaign council are not ruffled because we do realise from the beginning that we are going into a contest.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be a roller-coaster and that is why we have continued to interface with Nigerians across the six geopolitical zones.
“In this contest, nobody is an underdog and we do have respect for all candidates contesting this election but we do believe that we stand taller than any of the contestants.
“We are convinced that Nigerians would likely look in our direction because our presidential candidate and his running mate have got the credentials to be able to position our country and recover it from where we are at the moment.
“So, if a former President under the PDP has decided to pitch his tent with another person is not something that will ruffle us, it will only strengthen us to further deepen our interface with Nigerians for them to understand that where we are headed that Atiku-Okowa is the only ones that have what it takes to lead Nigeria out of the woods.
“Atiku has got the reach both nationally and internationally to unify Nigeria and put it on a strong pedestal in the comity of nations.
“We are very much convinced that Atiku towers far above other presidential candidates and that is why we are looking forward to Nigerians endorsing us because theirs is the ultimate.”