Obasanjo Warns against Coup

Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday warned those contemplating a military coup in the country or handling over to the military to desist from doing so as such is no longer fash­ionable.

Obasanjo stated this while host­ing the South West women wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Hadjia Aisha, wife of the party’s presidential candidate, who paid a courtesy call on him after their rally in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He said the warning became necessary in view of the rumour of a military coup in Nigeria which has been going on in recent time.

He equally advised those con­templating the idea of any likeli­hood of handling over to an In­terim National Government (ING) to discard it as such is no longer in tandem with the realities of gover­nance in modern day world.

Obasanjo, who said Nigeria has gone beyond the rumour of any unconstitutional arrangement of governance, particularly the ING, also emphasised that such act would undermine the integrity of Nigeria among the comity of na­tions.

He however, expressed hopes that the country will survive the rumour of handing over to the military.

Obasanjo explained that the in­tentional community, particularly the African Union (AU) would not recognise any government that emerges in Nigeria without follow­ing the due process stipulated by the nation’s constitution, stressing that Nigeria has all it takes to set the pace for other African coun­tries to follow.

The former president hinted that government of the United States of America (USA) as well as Government and people of Ghana which presently chairs the Eco­nomic Community of West Afri­can States (ECOWAS) are keenly interested in what happens to Nigeria at this her electioneering period.

“We have the goodwill of many people: I watched, last night, Presi­dent Obama talking about our con­stitution. I watched out Brother from Ghana, the current Chair­man of ECOWAS, talked about our constitution. They are all interest­ed, they all wish us well; should we wish ourselves anything less?”

“I do hope we will get things more right. A lot of rumours are flying around. I think we have gone away from the rumour of In­terim Government because that is not in our constitution.

“I hope we will soon go away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the mili­tary is not meant to run affairs of a nation in terms of running gov­ernment.

“And the intentional communi­ty will not condone it, particularly African Union where we have a sit­uation. We have said and it is part and parcel of the Constituting Act of the African Union; any govern­ment that is brought about not on the basis of the constitution will not be accepted, will not be toler­ated and will not be a member of the AU until that government is dismantled.

“It shouldn’t be, we are the larg­est country in Africa. We should be a model, setting examples. We shouldn’t be drawing Africa back­ward, I hope we will not. I hope at the end of this exercise, we would be where we should be, leading Af­rica and showing examples for the rest of Africa and indeed the rest of the world.

Obasanjo, who also bemoaned campaigns of hatred presently prevalent among the contesting political parties in the forthcom­ing general election, however, ad­vised politicians to focus more on what unites the country as against what divides the country.

He emphasised that any politi­cian or political parties who is desirous of ruling Nigeria and is interested in her future ought to tilt the focus of their electioneer­ing campaigns on issues of inse­curity, economy, and employment amongst others.

He however called on women to take active role in a better Nige­ria, adding that they would be the greatest victim should anything go wrong in Nigeria.

“I am happy to hear directly from you, Mrs. Buhari that the campaign so far, from the assess­ment has gone very well. May be I should say one or two things about campaign. I do hope that whatever happens at the elections, the one coming this week and the one com­ing couple of weeks after that, we would have learnt the right lessons from what has taken place this time around.

“Unfortunately, issues that should have been the main item of our campaign, they did not. We have serious issue of security, we have serious issue of our economy, we have issue of unemployment particularly youth unemploy­ment. We have serious issue of infrastructure, these are issues amongst others that I believe cam­paign of those who are interested in the present and the future of this country should be directed at.

“How are we going to get them, what are we going to do, not trivial issues of certificate, no certificate; not trivial issues of when some­body is talking about someone is a Nigerian and not a Nigerian.

“I said it, this is what they had in Cote d’Ivore and it led them into almost a very serious problem, not issue of religion, not issue of tribe, not issue of tribe, not issue of sec­tion but issues of unity of this country and the hate campaign that we have embarked upon now. I hope this will be the last time in the history of this country that we will have this type of campaign of hatred or division.

“I think the emphasis should be on what unites us, not what di­vide us and when you look at the faces of you ladies here, it is very difficult for me to know. I think we should empathise things that unites us, we should talk more on what will make this country not just a country but a great country and that is the challenge before Ni­gerians today and particularly be­fore those who are aspiring either at the state level or at the national level. How can this country be made to be a great country? God has given us all that we need. That we are not what we should be, we cannot blame God, and we should blame ourselves.

“And I want to thank you be­cause you women you have a role to play, and I mean that, when things are going wrong, if women don’t act, things will continue to go wrong because you have abil­ity to act. The men who invariably make things to go wrong are your fathers, your husbands, your sons, you sons-in-law, and your hus­bands. You can have pillow talk but when things are going wrong and you do not talk or act, you will also be the greatest victim at the end of the day because it will have effect on your children and would have a direct effect on you and will have the effect on all of us.”

Speaking earlier, Mrs. Buhari thanked Obasanjo for being a true nationalist, adding that Obasanjo acted beyond party level while solving issues affecting the coun­try.