Obasanjo's
letter to Jonathan : BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
Obasanjo’s 18-page letter entitled “Before it is
too late”, dated December 2, 2013.
BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
I am constrained to make this an open letter to
you for a number of reasons. One, the current
situation and consequent possible outcome dictate that
I should, before the door closes on reason and promotion of
national interest, alert you to the danger
that may be lurking in the
corner. Two, none of the four or more
letters that I have written to you in the
past two years or so has elicited
an acknowledgment or any response.
Three, people close to you, if not
yourself, have been asking, what does
Obasanjo want? Four, I could sense
a semblance between the situation that we are gradually
getting into and the situation we fell into as a nation during the Abacha
era. Five, everything must be done to
guard, protect and defend our fledgling
democracy, nourish it and prevent
bloodshed. Six, we must move
away from advertently or inadvertently dividing
the country along weak seams of North-South and
Christian-Moslem. Seven, nothing should be
done to allow the country to degenerate
into economic dormancy, stagnation or
retrogression.
Eight, some of our
international friends and development partners
are genuinely worried about signs and
signals that are coming out of Nigeria.
Nine, Nigeria should be in a position to take
advantage of the present favourable international
interest to invest in Africa - an
opportunity that will not be open for
too long. Ten, I am concerned about
your legacy and your climb-down which you alone can best be the manager of,
whenever you so decide.
Mr. President, you have on a number
of occasions acknowledged the role God enabled
me to play in your ascension to
power. You put me third after God and
your parents among those that have impacted
most on your life. I have
always retorted that God only put you where
you are and those that could be regarded as
having played a role were only instruments of God to achieve
God’s purpose in your life. For me, I believe
that politically, it was in the best
interest of Nigeria that you, a Nigerian
from minority group in the South, could
rise to the highest pinnacle of political
leadership. If Obasanjo could get there, Yar’Adua
could get there and Jonathan can get there, any Nigerian can. It is now not a
matter of the turn of any section or geographical
area but the best interest of Nigeria and all
Nigerians. It has been proved that no group –
ethnic, linguistic, religious or geographical
location – has monopoly of materials for
leadership of our country. And no
group solely by itself can crown any of its members
the Nigerian CEO. It is good for Nigeria.
I have also always
told you that God has graciously been
kind, generous, merciful and compassionate to
me and He has done more than I
could have ever hoped for. I
want nothing from you personally except that you should
run the affairs of Nigeria not only to make Nigeria good, but to
make Nigeria great for which I have
always pleaded with you and I will always do
so. And it is yet to be done for most
Nigerians to see.
For five capacities in which you find yourself,
you must hold yourself most significantly responsible for what happens or fails
to happen in Nigeria and in any case, most others will hold you responsible and
God who put you there will surely hold you
responsible and accountable. I have
had opportunity, in recent times, to interact closely with you and I have come
to the conclusion painfully or happily that if you can shun
yourself to a great extent of personal and
political interests and dwell more on
the national interest and also draw the
line between advice from selfish and
self-centered aides and advice from those who in the interest of the nation
may not tell you what you will
want to hear, it will be
well. The five positions which you
share with nobody except with God and
which place great and grave responsibility
on you are leadership of the ruling
party, headship of the Federal Government
or national government, Commander-in-Chief of the
Military, Chief Security Officer of the
nation, and the political leader of the
country. Those positions go with being the President of
our country and while depending on your disposition, you can
delegate or devolve responsibility, but the
buck must stop on your table whether you
like it or not.
Let me start with the leadership of the ruling
party. Many of us were puzzled over what was going on in the
party. Most party members blamed the National
Chairman. I understand that some in the
presidency tried to create the impression that some of us were to blame. The
situation became clear only when the National
Chairman spoke out that he never did
anything or acted in any way without
the approval or concurrence of the Party
Leader and that where the Party
Leader disapproved, he made correction or amendment,
that we realised most actions were those of the Chairman but
the motivation and direction were those
of the Leader. It would be unfair to continue to
level full blames on the Chairman for all that goes wrong with the
Party. The Chairman is playing the tune dictated by the
Paymaster. 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 that it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a
more credible and more honourable path. Although you have not
formally informed me one way or the
other, it will be necessary to
refresh your memory of what
transpired in 2011. I had gone
to Benue State for the marriage of
one of my staff, Vitalis Ortese, in
the State. Governor Suswam was my
hospitable host. He told me that you
had accepted a one-term presidency to allow for ease of
getting support across the board in the North. I
decided to cross-check with you. You
did not hesitate to confirm to me that you are a strong believer in
a one-term of six years for the President and
that by the time you have used
the unexpired time of your predecessor and
the four years of your first term,
you would have almost used up to six years and you would not need
any more term or time.
Later, I heard from other
sources including sources close to you that
you made the same commitment elsewhere,
hence, my inclusion of it in my
address at the finale of your campaign in 2011 as follows:
“…PDP should be praised
for being the only party that
enshrines federal character, zoning and rotation
in its Constitution and practises it. PDP
has brought stability and substantial predictability to the polity
and to the system. I do not know who will be President
of Nigeria after Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. That is in the hand of
God. But with PDP policy and practice, I can reasonably guess
from where, in term of section of
the country, the successor to President
Jonathan will come. And no internal democracy or
competition will thereby be destroyed. The recent
resort to sentiments and emotions of
religion and regionalism is self-serving,
unpatriotic and mischievous, to say the
least. It is also preying on dangerous emotive issues
that can ignite uncontrollable passion and can distabilise
if not destroy our country. This
is being oblivious to the sacrifices others
have made in the past for unity,
stability and democracy in Nigeria in
giving up their lives, shedding their blood,
and in going to prison. I personally have done
two out of those three sacrifices and I am ready to do the third if it
will serve the best interest of Nigerian dream. Let
me appeal to those who have embarked on this dangerous road to reflect and
desist from taking us on a perishable journey.
With common identity as Nigerians, there is more
that binds us than separates us.
I am a Nigerian, born a Yoruba man,
and I am proud of both identities as
they are for me complementary. Our duties,
responsibilities and obligations to our country as citizens and, indeed, as
leaders must go side by side with our
rights and demands. There must be certain values
and virtues that must go concomitantly with our
dream. Thomas Paine said “my country is the world”; for me, my
country I hold dear.
On two occasions, I
have had opportunity to work for my
successors to the government of Nigeria. On
both occasions, I never took the easy
and distabilising route of ethnic, regional or religious
consideration, rather I took the enduring route
of national, uniting and stabilising
route. I worked for both President Shagari
and President Yar’Adua to succeed me not just because they are Moslems,
Northerners or Hausa-Fulani, but because they could
strengthen the unity, stability and democracy
in Nigeria. We incurred the displeasure of ethnic
chauvinists for doing what was right for the country. That is in the
nature of burden of leadership. A leader must lead, no matter whose ox is
gored.
In the present
circumstance, let me reiterate what I have
said on a number of occasions. Electing Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan, in his own right and on his
own merit, as the President of
Nigeria will enhance and strengthen our
unity, stability and democracy. And
it will lead us towards the
achievement of our Nigerian dream.
There is a press report that Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan has already taken a unique and unprecedented step of
declaring that he would only want to
be a one-term President. If so,
whether we know it or not, that
is a sacrifice and it is statesmanly.
Rather than vilify him and pull him down, we, as
a Party, should applaud and commend him and Nigerians should reward
and venerate him. He has taken the first good step.
Let us encourage him to
take more good steps by voting him in with
landslide victory as the fourth elected
President of Nigeria on the basis of
our common Nigerian identity and for the purpose of actualising Nigerian
dream…”
When you won the election, one of the issues you
very early pursued was that of one term of six years. That
convinced me that you meant what you told me before my Speech at the
campaign. Mr. President, whatever may be your intention or
plan, I cannot comment much on the constitutional aspect of
your second term or what some people call
third term. That is for both legal
and judicial attention. But if
constitutionally you are on a strong wicket if you so
decide, it will be fatally and morally flawed. 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. I
will respect you for upholding these
attributes and for dignifying that Office.
Chinua Achebe said, “One of the truest test of
integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.”
It is a lesson for all leaders
including you and me.
However, Mr. President, let me hope that as you
claimed that you have not told anybody that you are contesting and that what we
see and hear is a rumbling of overzealous
aides, you will remain a leader that
can be believed and trusted without unduly passing the buck or engaging
in game of denials.
Maybe you also need
to know that many party members feel
disappointed in the double game you
were alleged to play in support of
party gubernatorial candidates in some States
where you surreptitiously supported non-PDP
candidates against PDP candidates in
exchange for promise or act of those
non-PDP Governors supporting you for your
election in the past or for the
one that you are yet to formally
declare. It happened in Lagos in 2011 when Bola Tinubu
was nocturnally brought to Abuja to strike a deal for support
for your personal election at great price materially
and in the fortune of PDP
gubernatorial candidate.
As Chairman of BOT, I spoke to you at that
time. It happened in Ondo State where there was in
addition evidence of cover-up and non-prosecution of
fraud of fake security report against
the non-PDP candidate and his collaborators for the
purpose of extracting personal electoral advantage for you.
In fact, I have raised with you the story of those in other States in the
South-West where some disgruntled PDP members were
going around to recruit people into the Labour Party for you, because,
for electoral purpose at the national level, Labour Party will have
no candidate but you. It also happened in Edo State
and those who know the detail never
stopped talking about it. And you know
it. Ditto in Anambra State with the fiasco coming
from undue interference. If you as leader
of the Party cannot be seen to be loyal to
the PDP in support of the candidates of the Party and the interests
of such Party candidates have to be sacrificed on the altar of your
personal and political interest, then good luck
to the Party and I will also say as I have had
occasions to say in the past, good luck to Goodluck.
If on the altar of
the Party you go for broke, the
Party may be broken beyond repairs. And
when in a dispute between two sides,
they both stubbornly decide to fight to the
last drop of blood, no one knows whose
blood would be the last to
drop. In such a situation, Nigeria as
a nation may also be adversely affected, not just the
PDP. I wish to see no more bloodshed occasioned by
politics in Nigeria. Please, Mr. President,
be mindful of that. You were exemplary in words when during the campaign
and the 2011 elections, you said, “My election is not worth spilling the blood
of any Nigerian.” From you, it should
not be if it has to be, let
it be. It should be from you, let peace,
security, harmony, good governance, development
and progress be for Nigeria. That is
also your responsibility and mandate. You can do
it and I plead that you do it. We all have to be mindful of
not securing pyrrhic victory on the
ashes of great values, attributes and
issues that matter as it would amount
to hollow victory without honour and integrity.
Whatever may be the
feud in PDP and no matter what you or
your aides may feel, you, as the
Party Leader, have the responsibility to
find solution, resolve and fix it.
Your legacy is involved. If PDP as
a ruling Party collapses, it will be
the first time in an independent
Nigeria that a ruling political party would collapse not as a
result of a military coup. It is food for
thought. At the prompting of Governors on both
sides of the divide, and on encouragement from you, I spent two nights to
intervene in the dispute of the PDP Governors. I kept you
fully briefed at every stage.
I deliberately chose Banquet Hall at the Villa to
ensure transparency. Your aides studied all the recordings of
the two nights. But I told you at the end of the
exercise that I observed five reactions
among the Governors that required your immediate attention as
you are the only one from the vantage point of your five positions that could
deal effectively with the five reactions which were
bitterness, anger, mistrust, fear and deep
suspicion. I could only hope that
you made efforts to deal with these
unpleasant reactions.
The feud leading to the factionalisation of the
Party made me to invite some select elders of the
Party to mediate again. Since I was
engaged in assignment outside the country, I was not able to join the
three members of the elders group that presented the report of our mediation
to you. I was briefed that you agreed to
work on the report. It would appear
that for now, the ball is in your court as the
Leader of the Party. I can only wish you every success
in your handling of the issue. But
time is not your friend or that of the Party in this respect.
With leadership come not just power and authority
to do and to undo, but also
responsibility and accountability to do and
to undo rightly, well and
justly. Time and opportunity are treasure
that must be appreciated and shared to enhance their value and
utilitarianism.
It is instructive that after half a dozen African
Presidents have spoken to me to help you with
unifying the Party based on your
request to them and I came in company of Senator Amadu
Ali to discuss the whole issue with you again,
strangely, you denied ever requesting or
authorising any President to talk to me. I was not
surprised because I am used to such a situation of denial coming from
you. Of course, I was not deterred. I have
done and I will continue to do and say what is first,
in the best interest of Nigeria and second, what is in the best interest of the
Party. I stand for the aims, objectives, mission and vision
of the founding fathers of the Party, to use it as a wholesome instrument of
unity, good governance, development, prosperity and progress of Nigeria and all
Nigerians. I have contributed to this goal
in the past and no one who has
been raised to position on the platform of
the Party should shy away from
further contribution to avoid division and destruction of the
Party on any altar whatsoever.
Debates and dialogues are
necessary to promote the interest and work
for the progress of any human institution or
organisation. In such a situation, agreements and
disagreements will occur but in the final analysis, leadership will
pursue the course of action that
benefit the majority and serve the purpose of the
organisation, not the purpose of an individual or a minority.
In that process, unity is sustained
and everybody becomes a winner. The
so-called crisis in the PDP can be turned to an opportunity of unity,
mutual understanding and respect with the
Party emerging with enhanced strength and
victory. It will be a win-win for all members of the Party
and for the country. By that, PDP
would have proved that it could have internal
disagreement and emerge stronger. The calamity of
failure can still be avoided. Please, move away from fringes
or the extremes and move to the centre and carry ALL along.
Time is running out.
I will only state
that as far as your responsibility as
Chief Security Officer of the nation is
concerned for Nigerians, a lot more
needs to be done to enhance the feeling of security amongst
them. Whether one talks of the issue of militancy in the
Niger Delta, the underlying causes of which have not been
adequately addressed, if addressed at all,
kidnapping, piracy, abductions and armed robberies which rather than abate are
on the increase and Boko Haram which requires carrot and stick
approach to lay its ghost to rest, the
general security situation cannot be
described as comforting. Knowing the
genesis of Boko Haram and the reasons
for escalation of violence from that sector with the widespread and
ramification of the menace of Boko
Haram within and outside the Nigerian
borders, conventional military actions based on
standard phases of military operations alone will not
permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko
Haram. There are many strands
or layers of causes that require different
solutions, approaches or antidotes.
Drug, indoctrination, fundamentalism, gun trafficking,
hate culture, human trafficking, money
laundering, religion, poverty, unemployment, poor education,
revenge and international terrorism are among factors that have
effect on Boko Haram.
One single prescription cannot cure all these
ailments that combine in Boko Haram. Should we pursue war
against violence without understanding the root causes of
the violence and applying solutions to
deal with all underlying factors – root, stem and branches?
Nigeria is bleeding and the hemorrhage must be stopped.
I am convinced that you can initiate
measures that will bring all hands on deck to deal effectively with this
great menace.
Mr. President, the most
important qualification for your present position
is your being a Nigerian. Whatever else
you may be besides being a Nigerian
is only secondary for this purpose.
And if majority of Nigerians who voted
had not cast their votes for you, you could not
have been there. 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 a Nigerian
if not naturalised, 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. You know that
I have expressed my views and feelings
to you on this issue in the
past but I have come to realise that
many others feel the way I have earlier expressed to you. It is not the best
way of making friendship among all
sections of Nigeria. You don’t have
shared and wholesome society without
inclusive political, economic and social sustainable
development and good governance. Also declaring
that one section of the country voted for you as
if you got no votes from other sections can
only be an unnecessary talk, to put it
mildly. After all and at the end of the day, democracy
is a game of numbers. Even, if you would not need people’s vote across
the country again, your political Party will.
Allegation of keeping over 1,000 people on
political watch list rather than criminal or
security 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 own
killers, if it is true, cannot augur well for the initiator, the government
and the people of Nigeria. Here
again, there is the lesson of history
to learn from for anybody who cares
to learn from history. Mr. President
would always remember that he was
elected to maintain security for all
Nigerians and protect them. And
no one should prepare to kill or maim
Nigerians for personal or political
ambition or interest of anyone. The
Yoruba adage says, “The man with whose head the coconut is broken may not live
to savour the taste of the succulent fruit.” Those who advise
you to go hard on those who oppose you
are your worst enemies. Democratic politics
admits and is permissive of supporters and opponents. When the
consequences come, those who have wrongly advised you will not be there to help
carry the can. Egypt must teach some lesson.
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. 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.
As Head of Government,
the buck of the performance and
non-performance stops on your table and
let nobody tell you anything to the
contrary. Most of our friends and
development partners are worried and they see what we pretend
to cover up. They are worried about issue of security
internally and on our coastal waters,
including heavy oil theft, alias bunkering
and piracy. They are worried about
corruption and what we are doing or
not doing about it. Corruption
has reached the level of impunity.
It is also necessary to be mindful
that corruption and injustice are fertile breeding ground for
terrorism and political instability. And if you are
not ready to name, shame, prosecute
and stoutly fight against corruption, whatever
you do will be hollow. It
will be a laughing matter.
They are worried about how we
play our role in our region and, indeed, in
the world. In a way, I share
some of their concerns because there are
notable areas we can do more or do better than
we are doing. Some of our development partners
were politically frustrated to withdraw
from the Olokola LNG project, which happily
was not yet the same with the Brass.
I initiated them both. They were viable and
would have taken us close to Qatar as LNG producing
country. Please do not frustrate Brass LNG and in the
interest of what is best for Nigerian
economy, bring back the OK LNG into active
implementation. The major international oil
companies have withheld investment in projects
in Nigeria. If they have not completely moved
out, they are divesting. Nigeria, which is the Saudi of Africa in oil
and gas terms, is being overtaken by
Angola only because necessary decisions are
not made timely and appropriately.
Mr. President, let me again plead with you to be decisive on
the oil and gas sector so that Nigeria may not lag behind.
Oil with gas is being discovered all over Africa. New technology is
producing oil from shale elsewhere. We should
make hay while the sun shines. I hope we can still save the OK and
Brass LNG projects.
Three things are
imperative in the oil and gas sector
– stop oil stealing, encourage investment,
especially by the IOCs and improve the
present poor management of the industry. On the economy generally, it
suffices to say that we could do better than we are
doing. The signs are there and the expectations
are high. The most dangerous ticking bomb
is youth unemployment, particularly in the face of unbridled corruption
and obscene rulers’ opulence.
Let me repeat that as far as
the issue of corruption, security and oil stealing is
concerned, it is only apt to say that when the guard becomes the
thief, nothing is safe, secure nor
protected in the house. We must
all remember that corruption, inequity and
injustice breed poverty, unemployment, conflict,
violence and wittingly or unwittingly create
terrorists because the opulence of the
governor can only lead to the leanness of the
governed. But God never sleeps, He is watching, waiting and
bidding His time to dispense justice.
The serious and strong allegation of
non-remittance of about $7bn from the NNPC to central bank occurring from
export of some 300,000 barrels per day, amounting to $900 million a month, to
be refined and with refined products of only
$400m returned and Atlantic Oil
loading about 130,000 barrels sold by Shell
and managed on behalf of NPDC with no
sale proceeds paid into NPDC account is
incredible. The allegation was buttressed by the letter of
the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to you on
non-remittance to the central bank. This allegation
will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or
bribing possible investigators. 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.
The international community
knows us as we are and maybe more
than we claim to know ourselves. And a good friend will tell you the truth
no matter how bitter. Denials and cover-up of
what is obvious, true and factual can
detract from honour, dignity and respect.
Truth and transparency dignify and earn
respect. And life without passion for
something can only achieve little.
I was taken aback when an African
Development Bank Director informed me that
the water project for Port Harcourt, originally initiated by
the Federal Government and to be financed by the bank, is being put in
the cooler by the Federal Government because of the Amaechi-Jonathan
face-off. Amaechi, whether he likes it or not, will cease to be governor
over Rivers State, which Port Harcourt is part by the end of May 2015, but
residents of Port Harcourt will continue to need improvement of
their water supply. President Jonathan should
rise above such pettiness and unpresidential act, if it is coming
from him. But if not, and it is the action
of overzealous officials reading the situation, he
should give appropriate instruction for the project to be pursued. And
there are other projects anywhere suffering the
same coolness as a result of similar
situation, let national interest supercede personal or political
feud and the machinations of satanic officials.
Mr. President, let me
plead with you for a few things that
will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life.
Don’t always consider critics on national issues as
enemies. Some of them may be
as patriotic and nationalistic as you and
I who have been in government. Some
of them have as much passion for
Nigeria as we have. I saw that among
Nigerians living abroad, hence, I initiated Nigerians
in Diaspora Organisation, NIDO. You must
also differentiate between malevolent, mischievous
and objective criticism. Analyses,
criticisms and commentaries on government actions and policies are sinew
of democracy.
Please, Mr. President, be very wary
of assistants, aides and collaborators who look for enemies for
you. I have seen them with you and some were around
me when I was in your position.
I knew how not to allow them create
enemies for me. If you allow them,
everybody except them will be your enemy. They are more
dangerous than identified adversaries. May God save leaders
from sycophants. They know what
you want to hear and they feed you with it essentially for
their own selfish interest. As far as you and Nigeria
are concerned, they are wreckers.
Where were they when God used others to
achieve His will in your life.
They possess you now for their interest. No interest should be higher or
more important than the Nigerian interest to you. You have
already made history and please do nothing to mar history. I
supported you as I supported Yar’Adua. For me, there is
neither North-South divide nor Christian-Moslem divide but one Nigeria.
Let me put it, that
talks, loose and serious, abound about
possible abuse and misuse of the military and the legitimate security apparatus
for unwholesome personal and political interest to the detriment of the honour,
dignity, oath and professionalism of these honourable and patriotic
forces.
Let me urge the authorities not to embark
on such destructive path for an important element of
our national make-up. The roles of the military and the security agencies
should be held sacrosanct in the best interest of the nation.
Again, let not history repeat itself here.
I believe that with
what Nigeria went through in the
past, the worst should have already happened. It must be your
responsibility as the captain of the ship to
prevent the ship from going aground
or from a shipwreck. For anybody close to you
saying that if the worst happens, he or she would not be involved is idle and
loose talk. If we leave God to do His will and we
don’t rely only on our own efforts, plans
and wisdom, God will always do His
best. And the power of money and
belief in it is satanically tempting. As I go
around Nigeria and the world, I always come across Nigerians who are first-class
citizens of the world and who are doing well where they
are and who are passionate to do
well for Nigeria. My hope for our country lies in
these people. They abound and I hope that all of us will
realise that they are the jewels of Nigeria wherever they may be and not those
who arrogate to themselves eternal for ephemeral.
Also, to my embarrassment
at times, I learned more about what
is going on in the public and private sectors of Nigeria from our development
partners, international institutions and those transacting business in Nigeria
most times I was abroad. On returning home to verify the
veracity of these stories, I found some of them
not only to be true but more horrifying than
they were presented abroad. Other
countries look up to Nigeria for regional
leadership. Failure on the part of Nigeria will create a
schism that will be bad for the region.
Knowing what happens around
you, most of which you know of and condone or deny,
this letter will provoke 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. If I stuck
out my neck and God used me and others as instrument to work hard for you to
reach where you are today in what I considered
the best political interest of Nigeria,
tagging me as your enemy or the enemy
of your administration by you, your kin or your aides
can only be regarded as ridiculous to extreme. If I see
any danger to your life, I will point it out to you or ward it off as I have
done in the past.
But I will not support what I believe is not in
the best interest of Nigeria, no matter who is putting it forward
or who is behind it. Mr. President, I have passed
the stage of being flattered, intimidated,
threatened, frightened, induced or bought. I am never afraid
to agree or disagree but it will always 13 be on principles, and if on
politics, in the national interest. After my prison experience in the close
proximity of and sharing facilities with an asylum in Yola, there is nothing
worse for anyone alive and well. And that was for a
military dictator to perpetuate himself in
power. Death is the end of all
human beings and may it come when
God wills it to come. The harassment of my
relations and friends and innuendo that are coming from the Government security
apparatus on whether they belong to new PDP or supporters of defected Governors
and which are possibly authorised or are the work of
overzealous aides and those reading your
lips to act in your interest will be
counter-productive. It is abuse of security apparatus. Such abuse took
place last in the time of Abacha.
Lies and untruths about me emanating from
the presidency is too absurd to contemplate. Saying that I recommended a wanted
criminal by UK and USA authorities to you or your aides to supplant
legitimately elected PDP leader in South-West is not only unwise
and crude but also disingenuous.
Nobody in his or her right senses
will believe such a story and surely
nobody in Ogun State or South-West zone will believe
such nonsense. It is a clear indication of how unscrupulous and unethical the
presidency can go to pursue your personal and political
interest. Nothing else matters. What a
pity! Nothing at this stage of my life would prevent me from standing for
whatever I consider to be in the best interest of Nigeria – all Nigeria, Africa
and the world in that order. I believe strongly that a united
and strong PDP at all costs is in the best interest of
Nigeria. In these respects, if our
interests and views coincide, together we
will march. Putting a certified unashamed
criminal wanted abroad to face justice and who has greatly contributed to
corruption within the judiciary on a high profile of politics as you and your
aides have done with the man you enthrone as PDP Zonal leader in the South-West
is the height of disservice to this country politically and height of insult to
the people of South-West in general and
members of PDP in that zone in particular.
For me, my politics goes with principles and
morality and I will not be a party to highly profiling criminals in
politics, not to say one would be my zonal
leader. It destroys what PDP
stands for from its inception…
God is never a supporter of evil and will surely
save PDP and Nigeria from the hands of destroyers. If
everything fails and the Party cannot be retrieved
from the hands of criminals and
commercial jobbers and discredited touts, men
and women of honour, principles, morality
and integrity must step aside to rethink.
Let me also appeal to and urge defected,
dissatisfied, disgruntled and in any way displeased PDP Governors, legislators,
party officials and party members to respond positively if the President
seriously takes the initiative to find mutually agreeable
solution to the current problems for
which he alone has the key and the initiative. I have
heard it said particularly within the presidency circle that the
disaffected Governors and members of PDP are my
children. I begin to wonder if,
from top to bottom, any PDP
15 member in elective office
today is not directly or indirectly a
beneficiary and, so to say, my political child. Anyone
who may claim otherwise will be like a river that has forgotten its source.
But like a good father, all I seek is peaceful and amicable
solution that will re-unite the family
for victory and progress of the family and the nation and nothing
else.
In a democracy, leaders
are elected to lighten the burden of
the people, give them freedom, choice and
equity and ensure good governance and not to
deceive them, burden them, oppress them, render them
hopeless and helpless. Nothing should
be done to undermine the tenets, and values of democratic
principles and practice. Tyranny in all its manifestation may
be appealing to a leader in trying times of political feud or
disagreement. Democracy must, however,
prevail and be held as sacrosanct.
Today, you are the President of Nigeria, I
acknowledge you and respect you as such.
The act of an individual
has a way of rubbing off on the
generality.
May it never be the wish of majority of Nigerians
that Goodluck Jonathan, by his acts of omission
or commission, would be the first and
the last Nigerian President ever to come
from Ijaw tribe. The idea and
the possibility must give all of us
food for thought. That was
never what I worked for and that
would never be what I will work
for. But legacy is made of such or the opposite.
My last piece of
advice, Mr. President, is that you
should learn the lesson of history and please do not take Nigeria
and Nigerians for granted.
Move away from culture
of denials, cover-ups and proxies and deal
honesty, sincerely and transparently with Nigerians to regain their trust and
confidence. Nigerians are no fools, they can see, they can
hear, they can talk among themselves, they can think, they can compare and they
can act in the interest of their country and in
their own self-interest. They keenly
watch all actions and deeds that are
associated with you if they cannot believe
your words. I know you have the
power to save PDP and the
country. I beg you to have the courage and the will with
patriotism to use the power for the good of
the country. Please uphold some form
of national core values. I will appeal to all Nigerians particularly all
members of PDP to respect and dignify
the Office of the President. We must
all know that individuals will come and go but the Office will remain.
Once again, time is of the
essence. Investors are already retreating
16 from Nigeria, adopting ‘wait and
see attitude’ and knowing what we are
deficient of, it will take time to
reverse the trend and we may miss
some golden opportunities.
Finally, your later-day conversion into National
Conference is fraught with danger of disunity, confusion and chaos if not well
handled. I believe in debate and
dialogue but it must be purposeful,
directed and managed well without ulterior
motives. The ovation has not died out yet and there is always
life after a decent descent.
Accept, Dear Mr. President,
the assurances of my highest consideration.
Olusegun Obasanjo
PS
I crave your indulgence
to share the contents of this letter,
in the first instance, with General Ibrahim
Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who,
on a number of occasions in recent
times, have shared with me their agonising
thoughts, concerns and expressions on most of
the issues I have raised in this
letter concerning the situation and future
of our country. I also crave your indulgence to
share the contents with General Yakubu Danjuma and Dr. Alex
Ekwueme, whose concerns for and commitments to the good of
Nigeria have been known to be strong.
The limit of sharing of
the contents may be extended as time goes on.
Olusegun Obasanjo
Source: As published by THISDAY LIVE
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