Again, Obasanjo attacks Buhari over Feb poll
…Says President behaves like Abacha, plans to rig election
…Presidency to Obasanjo: Get well soon .We are still studying allegation – INEC
Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has widened his enmity with incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari with yet another epistle titled “Points for Concern and Actions”.
In the missive released at a world press conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Sunday, Obasanjo likened Buhari’s administration to the military junta era of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, accusing the President of plotting to perpetuate himself in power through electoral fraud.
The Ota-born General fingered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conspiracy to rig the February 16 Presidential election in favour of Buhari.
Obasanjo expressed deep concern about the nation’s democracy which he described as being threatened by various actions and inactions of the Buhari administration.
He said from all indications, President Buhari is using State institutions to suppress opposition voices, deny people of their fundamental human rights, and intimidating would be antagonists in a bid to ride back to power through means contrary to constitutional stipulations as exactly done by Abacha in his self-succession bid.
“Buhari’s watch can be likened to what we witnessed under Gen. Sani Abacha in many ways.
When Abacha decided that he must install himself as Nigerian President by all means and at all costs, he went for broke and surrounded himself with hatchet men who on his order and in his interest and at high costs to Nigeria and Nigerians maimed, tortured and killed for Abacha.
“We have heard of how Buhari and his party are going about his own self-succession project. They have started recruiting collation officers who are already awarding results based on their projects to actualise the perpetuation agenda.
“Buhari’s “henchmen are working round the clock in cahoots with security and election officials to perfect their plan by computing results right from the ward to local government, state and national levels to allot him what will look like a landslide victory irrespective of the true situation.
“President Buhari and his hatchet men in the coming election think that the judiciary must be primed in their favour. Hence, the Chief Justice of Nigeria… has been harassed and prosecuted.
“President Buhari and his people believe no stone should be left unturned to rig Buhari in. It seems to be a ploy to intimidate the judiciary as a whole in preparation for all election cases that will go before them.
“Buhari has succeeded in deceiving us the first time and we will be fools to allow ourselves to be deceived the second time.
“Even when figures, facts and statistics are made clear to Buhari, he keeps repeating what is untrue, either because he cannot understand or for mischief purposes and that places him on the level of a pathological liar.
“Buhari believes he can get away with impunity and deceit as he seems to have done on many occasions in the past.”
“The current plan is to drape the pre-determined results with a toga of credibility.
It is also planned that violence of unimaginable proportion will be unleashed in high voting population areas across the country to precipitate re-run elections and where Buhari will be returned duly elected after concentration of security. “Buhari’s scheme bears eloquent testimony to this road similar to Abacha whom he has praised to high heavens and as an arch-supporter and beneficiary from Abacha, he has seen nothing wrong done by him. “It is clear from all indications that Buhari is putting into practice the lessons he learned from Abacha. Buhari has intimidated and harassed the private sector, attacked the National Assembly and now unconstitutionally and recklessly attacked and intimidated the Judiciary to cow them to submission”, he said. Warning Nigerians that all have duties to safeguard democracy, he said: “This is a time for vigilance to fight to safeguard our votes and defend our democracy. The price of liberty and sustenance of our democracy is eternal vigilance and appropriate reaction to ward off iniquities. “We must all be ready to pay that price and not relying on hollow words of callousness. The derailment of Nigerian democracy will be a monumental disaster comparable to the disaster of the Nigerian first military coup. “Nigeria must not be allowed to slip off the democratic path nor go into anarchy and ruin. No individual nor group has monopoly of violence or gangsterism”. Obasanjo passed a vote of no confidence on INEC while he doubts the possibility of the Commission conducting free, fair and credible elections. He said the track record of the present INEC is “fairly sordid and all men and women of goodwill and believers in democracy must be prepared for the worst from INEC and their encouragers.” He alleged that the transmission and collation of results are subject to interference, manipulation and meddling, saying ” if the INEC’s favourite political party wins with all the above infractions, the result will be conclusively declared and if not, there will be a ‘rerun’.” He suggested that for 2019 Election to be free and fair, that separate accreditation and separate voting method used in 2015 election must be retained, adding that accreditation figures must be announced and recorded before voting starts. Obasanjo said that a national commissioner, Mrs. Amina Zakari, has become too controversial a figure to be able to give assurance of free, fair and credible election for INEC. Advising INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to act courageously by relieving her of the Collation assignment, Obasanjo said Zakari is not the only Commissioner that can be in the Collation Centre. He said “a judge does not sit in judgement over a case once he or she becomes a cause for controversy… Madam Amina Zakari should, in honour, stay out and not be seen as a source of contamination of the election”. He opined that democracy becomes a sham if elections are carried out by people who should be impartial and neutral umpires, but who show no integrity. Reacting to the allegations during his appearance on Sunday Politics, Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media, Femi Adesina, described the claims as mere opinion of the former President. “Talking of the statement today, I can only say that it is the opinion of a man,” the Special Adviser to the President said. “There are about 196 million Nigerians; if one man says anything, it is just his opinion; it does not mean that is the gospel … this is a democracy, he has a right to it.” Meanwhile, the Presidency has described the allegations of former President Obasanjo against President Buhari on Sunday as the last push by desperate politicians who can’t handle the President politically and have resorted to subterfuge. Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in a reaction on Sunday, said: “Our first message to the former President is that he needs a good doctor for good treatment and to say to him, “Get well soon.” “As repeatedly said of him, since Chief Obasanjo left office in 1979, he never let every succeeding leader of the country function freely, and this included the one he personally handpicked against all known rules drawn up by the party that put him in the office of the President. But Chief Obasanjo is jealous because President Buhari has more esteem than him and the sooner he learns to respect him the better. “It is a notorious fact that in dealing with any leader that he failed to control, he resorted to these puerile attacks. As the grand patron, more correctly the grandfather of corruption as described by the National Assembly, Chief Obasanjo released today’s letter purely for the reason of rescuing his thriving corruption establishment. “The elections starting in February will be free and fair as promised the nation and the international community by President Buhari. “What Chief Obasanjo and his co-travelers in the PDP should expect is that from the outcome, we will teach them a political lesson that they will never forget. This margin will be much bigger than we had in 2015. “Claims that President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have embarked on the president’s “self- succession project, by recruiting collation officers who are already awarding results based on their projects to actualise the perpetuation agenda, in which the people will not matter and the votes will not count” is not only utterly false, but a copious note from the book on the failed third term agenda of President Obasanjo. “The man, President Buhari who has taken Nigeria’s reputation to a higher level internationally and is working hard to improve on the records of elections he found in place cannot descend to the level that Obasanjo has himself sunk. “As for his attacks of the administration’s records in fighting corruption, what the former President said is no more than evidence that President Buhari’s war against corruption is succeeding. They thought it is all a joke. “A leader who took USD 16 billion “upfront” to supply electric power yet failed to add a single megawatt to the national grid and to date, there is no trace of the money is jittery that he will be called to account. He is a coward. “Chief Obasanjo, manifesting a confused state of mind blames President Buhari for the fall of Libya into a failed state and the unholy alliance between the Boko Haram terrorists and the ISIS, while at the same time calling it an African problem, saying “the struggle must be for all West African, Central African, North African and most East African States,” which really does not amount to saying anything new. “Nigerians looked up to him as a role model and a ray of hope to ethical and clean leadership until President Yar’Adua called him out to explain what happened to the sixteen billion dollars of taxpayer’s money. It is clear that with him sitting on top of the heap of corruption, he is no different from the crowd he leads. “This language of his 16-page letter, likening President Buhari to General Sani Abacha, a man he dreaded and the one who jailed him under military laws is most unfitting from a former President of Nigeria. “The claim that President Buhari has put in place rigging machinery is both outlandish and outrageous. We are unable to get the words to describe a 90-year old liar, except to say that by the publication of this tissue of lies against the President, he Obasanjo, not the President will fall from everyone’s esteem. Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it will take time to study the allegations against the Commission the former president before reacting appropriately. Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, told The Daily Times in a telephone interview that INEC was is studying the statement issued by Obasanjo. When asked if INEC’s reaction could be released before press time, he said “if somebody takes a whole day to write such an essay, we need to study it. “You cannot get our reaction today. It is not something you respond to in a hurry. You need to study it”. APC, PDP react Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, reacted to the allegations by former President Obasanjo against President Buhari. Speaking at an interactive session with reporters in Abuja on Sunday, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, noted that the party has no reason to rig the elections as alleged by Obasanjo. He explained that the allegation of plot to rig the poll was a mere imagination of the former president whom he alleged was afraid of his past. Issa-Onilu said: “We can understand where the former president is coming from; his past is haunting him. “2003 and 2007 elections were nothing to write home about, those happened under former President Obasanjo. We all know how the elections went. So, for us in the APC, votes will count.” The APC spokesman stressed that President Buhari has no reason to rig the election, having promised Nigerians that he would ensure the votes were free and fair. He added that while the President’s work would speak for him at the poll, it was during former President Obasanjo’s administration that manipulation of the electoral process was alleged a norm. Issa-Onilu further advised the former president to readjust himself to the reality of what he described as an imminent defeat. “We are going to have a free, credible and fair election,” he insisted, adding, “We have no reasons to want to rig election; our achievements speak for us. “Former President Obasanjo should adjust himself to the reality of imminent defeat that is staring him in the face.” In its reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said everything said by Obasanjo had vindicated the party which has been raising alarms on actions of the All Progressives Congress government described as inimical to peaceful conduct of free and fair elections. The party said the concerns raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, detailing President Muhammadu Buhari’s scheme to use apparatus of state power to subjugate Nigerians, undermine the democratic system, subvert the electoral process and perpetuate himself in office, have further vindicated its stand that Mr. President is out for a self-succession plot. It said Obasanjo’s submission has also reinforced its position that President Buhari, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), having realised that there is no way they can win in a free and fair election, is now besieging all democratic institutions, including the Judiciary, the Legislature, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), while engaging in acts that threaten the unity, peace and corporate existence of the nation. The party’s national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said the entire world can see how President Buhari and APC’s desperation for power is putting the lives of over 200 million Nigerian citizens at great risk as their actions stoke violence and push the nation to the precipice.
“We are however not surprised that the APC, a party that has shown that it is completely anti-people, quickly rose in defence of the Buhari Presidency’s assault on our democratic order. The APC has always been a deceptive soulless mob that would rather have our nation burn than to be out of power. “President Obasanjo’s concern is therefore a clarion call to all compatriots, irrespective of ethnic, religious and political affiliations to rise in defence of our democracy. “He has reinforced the fact that this nation belong to all of us; that our pride as a people lies in our resilience and globally acclaimed ability to rise above and defeat every situation that challenges our nationhood”. The PDP warned concerned citizens never to allow anybody to set the nation on fire just to achieve selfish ambitions. “We must eschew all our differences and unite in using our votes to take back our country from this dwindling, incompetent, ineffectual, corrupt and anti-people administration. “If we don’t take action with our votes, we would be giving up our nation to totalitarian forces at our own peril and those of generations yet unborn”, he said. Abiodun Taiwo, Tunde Opalana, and Mathew Dadiya, Abuja
It is also planned that violence of unimaginable proportion will be unleashed in high voting population areas across the country to precipitate re-run elections and where Buhari will be returned duly elected after concentration of security. “Buhari’s scheme bears eloquent testimony to this road similar to Abacha whom he has praised to high heavens and as an arch-supporter and beneficiary from Abacha, he has seen nothing wrong done by him. “It is clear from all indications that Buhari is putting into practice the lessons he learned from Abacha. Buhari has intimidated and harassed the private sector, attacked the National Assembly and now unconstitutionally and recklessly attacked and intimidated the Judiciary to cow them to submission”, he said. Warning Nigerians that all have duties to safeguard democracy, he said: “This is a time for vigilance to fight to safeguard our votes and defend our democracy. The price of liberty and sustenance of our democracy is eternal vigilance and appropriate reaction to ward off iniquities. “We must all be ready to pay that price and not relying on hollow words of callousness. The derailment of Nigerian democracy will be a monumental disaster comparable to the disaster of the Nigerian first military coup. “Nigeria must not be allowed to slip off the democratic path nor go into anarchy and ruin. No individual nor group has monopoly of violence or gangsterism”. Obasanjo passed a vote of no confidence on INEC while he doubts the possibility of the Commission conducting free, fair and credible elections. He said the track record of the present INEC is “fairly sordid and all men and women of goodwill and believers in democracy must be prepared for the worst from INEC and their encouragers.” He alleged that the transmission and collation of results are subject to interference, manipulation and meddling, saying ” if the INEC’s favourite political party wins with all the above infractions, the result will be conclusively declared and if not, there will be a ‘rerun’.” He suggested that for 2019 Election to be free and fair, that separate accreditation and separate voting method used in 2015 election must be retained, adding that accreditation figures must be announced and recorded before voting starts. Obasanjo said that a national commissioner, Mrs. Amina Zakari, has become too controversial a figure to be able to give assurance of free, fair and credible election for INEC. Advising INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to act courageously by relieving her of the Collation assignment, Obasanjo said Zakari is not the only Commissioner that can be in the Collation Centre. He said “a judge does not sit in judgement over a case once he or she becomes a cause for controversy… Madam Amina Zakari should, in honour, stay out and not be seen as a source of contamination of the election”. He opined that democracy becomes a sham if elections are carried out by people who should be impartial and neutral umpires, but who show no integrity. Reacting to the allegations during his appearance on Sunday Politics, Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media, Femi Adesina, described the claims as mere opinion of the former President. “Talking of the statement today, I can only say that it is the opinion of a man,” the Special Adviser to the President said. “There are about 196 million Nigerians; if one man says anything, it is just his opinion; it does not mean that is the gospel … this is a democracy, he has a right to it.” Meanwhile, the Presidency has described the allegations of former President Obasanjo against President Buhari on Sunday as the last push by desperate politicians who can’t handle the President politically and have resorted to subterfuge. Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in a reaction on Sunday, said: “Our first message to the former President is that he needs a good doctor for good treatment and to say to him, “Get well soon.” “As repeatedly said of him, since Chief Obasanjo left office in 1979, he never let every succeeding leader of the country function freely, and this included the one he personally handpicked against all known rules drawn up by the party that put him in the office of the President. But Chief Obasanjo is jealous because President Buhari has more esteem than him and the sooner he learns to respect him the better. “It is a notorious fact that in dealing with any leader that he failed to control, he resorted to these puerile attacks. As the grand patron, more correctly the grandfather of corruption as described by the National Assembly, Chief Obasanjo released today’s letter purely for the reason of rescuing his thriving corruption establishment. “The elections starting in February will be free and fair as promised the nation and the international community by President Buhari. “What Chief Obasanjo and his co-travelers in the PDP should expect is that from the outcome, we will teach them a political lesson that they will never forget. This margin will be much bigger than we had in 2015. “Claims that President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have embarked on the president’s “self- succession project, by recruiting collation officers who are already awarding results based on their projects to actualise the perpetuation agenda, in which the people will not matter and the votes will not count” is not only utterly false, but a copious note from the book on the failed third term agenda of President Obasanjo. “The man, President Buhari who has taken Nigeria’s reputation to a higher level internationally and is working hard to improve on the records of elections he found in place cannot descend to the level that Obasanjo has himself sunk. “As for his attacks of the administration’s records in fighting corruption, what the former President said is no more than evidence that President Buhari’s war against corruption is succeeding. They thought it is all a joke. “A leader who took USD 16 billion “upfront” to supply electric power yet failed to add a single megawatt to the national grid and to date, there is no trace of the money is jittery that he will be called to account. He is a coward. “Chief Obasanjo, manifesting a confused state of mind blames President Buhari for the fall of Libya into a failed state and the unholy alliance between the Boko Haram terrorists and the ISIS, while at the same time calling it an African problem, saying “the struggle must be for all West African, Central African, North African and most East African States,” which really does not amount to saying anything new. “Nigerians looked up to him as a role model and a ray of hope to ethical and clean leadership until President Yar’Adua called him out to explain what happened to the sixteen billion dollars of taxpayer’s money. It is clear that with him sitting on top of the heap of corruption, he is no different from the crowd he leads. “This language of his 16-page letter, likening President Buhari to General Sani Abacha, a man he dreaded and the one who jailed him under military laws is most unfitting from a former President of Nigeria. “The claim that President Buhari has put in place rigging machinery is both outlandish and outrageous. We are unable to get the words to describe a 90-year old liar, except to say that by the publication of this tissue of lies against the President, he Obasanjo, not the President will fall from everyone’s esteem. Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it will take time to study the allegations against the Commission the former president before reacting appropriately. Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, told The Daily Times in a telephone interview that INEC was is studying the statement issued by Obasanjo. When asked if INEC’s reaction could be released before press time, he said “if somebody takes a whole day to write such an essay, we need to study it. “You cannot get our reaction today. It is not something you respond to in a hurry. You need to study it”. APC, PDP react Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, reacted to the allegations by former President Obasanjo against President Buhari. Speaking at an interactive session with reporters in Abuja on Sunday, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, noted that the party has no reason to rig the elections as alleged by Obasanjo. He explained that the allegation of plot to rig the poll was a mere imagination of the former president whom he alleged was afraid of his past. Issa-Onilu said: “We can understand where the former president is coming from; his past is haunting him. “2003 and 2007 elections were nothing to write home about, those happened under former President Obasanjo. We all know how the elections went. So, for us in the APC, votes will count.” The APC spokesman stressed that President Buhari has no reason to rig the election, having promised Nigerians that he would ensure the votes were free and fair. He added that while the President’s work would speak for him at the poll, it was during former President Obasanjo’s administration that manipulation of the electoral process was alleged a norm. Issa-Onilu further advised the former president to readjust himself to the reality of what he described as an imminent defeat. “We are going to have a free, credible and fair election,” he insisted, adding, “We have no reasons to want to rig election; our achievements speak for us. “Former President Obasanjo should adjust himself to the reality of imminent defeat that is staring him in the face.” In its reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said everything said by Obasanjo had vindicated the party which has been raising alarms on actions of the All Progressives Congress government described as inimical to peaceful conduct of free and fair elections. The party said the concerns raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, detailing President Muhammadu Buhari’s scheme to use apparatus of state power to subjugate Nigerians, undermine the democratic system, subvert the electoral process and perpetuate himself in office, have further vindicated its stand that Mr. President is out for a self-succession plot. It said Obasanjo’s submission has also reinforced its position that President Buhari, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), having realised that there is no way they can win in a free and fair election, is now besieging all democratic institutions, including the Judiciary, the Legislature, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), while engaging in acts that threaten the unity, peace and corporate existence of the nation. The party’s national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said the entire world can see how President Buhari and APC’s desperation for power is putting the lives of over 200 million Nigerian citizens at great risk as their actions stoke violence and push the nation to the precipice.
“We are however not surprised that the APC, a party that has shown that it is completely anti-people, quickly rose in defence of the Buhari Presidency’s assault on our democratic order. The APC has always been a deceptive soulless mob that would rather have our nation burn than to be out of power. “President Obasanjo’s concern is therefore a clarion call to all compatriots, irrespective of ethnic, religious and political affiliations to rise in defence of our democracy. “He has reinforced the fact that this nation belong to all of us; that our pride as a people lies in our resilience and globally acclaimed ability to rise above and defeat every situation that challenges our nationhood”. The PDP warned concerned citizens never to allow anybody to set the nation on fire just to achieve selfish ambitions. “We must eschew all our differences and unite in using our votes to take back our country from this dwindling, incompetent, ineffectual, corrupt and anti-people administration. “If we don’t take action with our votes, we would be giving up our nation to totalitarian forces at our own peril and those of generations yet unborn”, he said. Abiodun Taiwo, Tunde Opalana, and Mathew Dadiya, Abuja
