Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo Writes President Goodluck Jonathan

Culled from Premium Times

An apparently angry and frustrated ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo has written what clearly competes as one of the most acerbic letters
in modern history to President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of ineptitude
and of taking actions calculated at destroying Nigeria.

“Nigeria is bleeding and the hemorrhage must be stopped,”
Mr. Obasanjo said in the 18-page letter dated December 2, 2013 and exclusively
obtained by Premium Times Tuesday.

He said Mr. Jonathan has failed to deliver on his promises
to the Nigerian people, stem corruption, promote national unity and strengthen
national security.

He said in the letter titled “Before it is too late” that
rather than take steps to advance Nigeria’s interest and up the standards of
living of Nigerians, Mr. Jonathan had betrayed God and the Nigerian people that
brought him to power, and has been pursuing selfish personal and political
interests based on advice he receives from “self-centred aides”.

In the detailed letter, dripping of anger , frustration and
what appears a genuine concern to rescue a nation on the brink, Mr. Obasanjo
lamented that Mr. Jonathan had become terribly divisive and clannish,
destroying his own party, polarizing the country along regional and religious
lines and ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of nations.

Without mincing words, Mr. Obasanjo blamed Mr. Jonathan for
the crises tearing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, apart.

He said apart from using party chairman Bamanga Tukur to
cause multiple crises and divide the ranks of the party, the president’s
failure to keep a promise he made not to seek a second term is also generating
tension within the ruling party.

“It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the
Chairman (Tukur) for all that goes wrong with the party,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
“The chairman is playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). 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 it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more
credible and more honorable path.”

The former President said Mr. Jonathan told him before the
2011 election he would not seek a second term, and made the same promise to
governors, party stakeholders and Nigerians.

The president’s refusal to keep that promise cast him as a
man without honour, Mr. Obasanjo said.

Saying it would be “fatally morally flawed” for Mr. Jonathan
to contest in 2015, Mr. Obasanjo added, “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.”

Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of anti-party
conducts – supporting opposition parties’ candidates in governorship elections
in Lagos, Ondo, Edo and Anambra states at the detriment of PDP’s own candidates
–, and of pitting party members against one another.

Saying the President had failed to address the underlying
causes of the Boko Haram menace, Mr. Obasanjo urged Mr. Jonathan to adopt a
carrot and stick approach in dealing with the insurgency explaining that
“conventional military actions based on standard phases of military operations
alone will not permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko Haram”.

 Mr. Obasanjo also
tackled Mr. Jonathan for allegedly being clannish. “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 Nigerian if not
naturalized 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.

Two Ijaw men, ex-militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and a former
federal commissioner for information,   
Edwin Clark, who carries himself around as the political godfather of
the president, are known to talk down on people opposed to the president.

Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of placing over 1000
Nigerians on political 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 killers”.

He wondered why the Presidency was providing assistance for
a murderer to evade justice.

“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,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “Assisting
criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as
it is viwed 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.”

Mr. Obasanjo did not mention the name of the murderer he
accused the President of protecting but he seems to be referring to Hamza
Al-Mustapha, a former security aide to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha,
who is facing trial for allegedly masterminding the killing of Kudirat Abiola,
the wife of Moshood Abiola, the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential
election.

Mr. Al-Mustapha was freed by the appeal court in July but
the Lagos state government has since appealed the judgment at the Supreme
Court.

The former President also called on the National Assembly to
rise up and take decisive action over the recent allegation in the country that
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit billions of dollars
in proceeds of crude oil sales to the federation account.

“This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up,
denial or bribing possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo told the President.
“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 n*ked 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.”

Mr. Obasanjo said he wrote the letter in the national
interest, saying nothing, at this stage of his life, would prevent him from
standing up for whatever he considers to be in the best interest of Nigeria,
Africa and the world.

He said he was ready for whatever backlash his letter would
provoke from the presidency.

“Knowing what happens around you most of which you know of
and condone or deny, this letter will proke 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…,” Mr. Obasanjo said.

“I have passed the stage of being flattered, intimidated,
threatened, frightened, induced or bought… Death is the end of all human beings
and may it come when God wills it to come.”