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Run Away from Obasanjo, Senator Owie Tells Buhari

Nigeria’s President-Elect. Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to avoid former president Olusegun Obasanjo if he intends to succeed in leading Nigeria.

Former Chief Whip of Senate, Senator Rowland Owie, gave the advice to the president-elect in a press statement released in Benin on Wednesday. According to Owie, Obasanjo is one bad leader that fights a government once he is not given a listening ear by the administration.

“To Buhari, I thank God for you, but you must deliver on your promises and also build on what President Goodluck Jonathan did. Above all, you must run far from Obasanjo. If he can’t control your government, he will fight you.

He has done it to all former Presidents of Nigeria and even against MKO Abiola who was not sworn in. Never discuss with Obasanjo unless you have at least two of your aides present.

Half way into the tenure of President Jonathan, Obasanjo started trouble making by naming presidential and vice-presidential candidates. First, it was Governor Sule Lamido as president and Governor Rotimi Amaechi as his deputy. A respectable Lamido, a founding father of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP while Obasanjo was in prison, was being urged to fight PDP.

Owie attributed the recent loss of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to Obasanjo who he said, instigated some governors to fight against the party and President Jonathan. Owie also urged Buhari not to have a discussion with Obasanjo without witnesses present.

OBJ lured most PDP governors in the North into rebellion against PDP to destroy the platform that gave all of them relevance, including OBJ. The hate mood in the North for this election against Jonathan was such that, any candidate from the North would have won the election.

The anger was that power must return to the North. Nigerians can see that rebellion against one’s own and betrayer of one’s party doesn’t pay.

Gov. Aliyu Babangìda of Niger State, who led the rebellion against Jonathan and the PDP, lost his election to the Senate and also lost his state.”

Owie also congratulated Nigerians on their comportment during the just concluded general elections saying that the actions and commitment to the exercise prevented a bloodbath as predicted in certain quarters.

I congratulate Nigerians for their commitment to democracy and particularly, congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan, for choosing to go the ‘Way of The Cross’, by quickly conceding defeat in this election which averted the impending chaos that would have enveloped the nation.

“Nigeria would have been burning now particularly in the north. Keen observers of events in Nigeria since the 2011 general elections, when President Jonathan was elected, know that Boko Haram activities escalated in Nigeria. “Innocent citizens, mainly Christians, were murdered and churches burnt down. Why? Yes! Politicians and non- politicians mainly in the North believed that a northerner should have replaced Jonathan in 2011 to continue with late Yar’Adua’s tenure.

The senator further charged members of the PDP to remain committed to the party and help rebuild the party stating that “PDP shall rise again.”

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Ihesiulo Grace

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