Obasanjo writes 18-page letter to President Jonathan

Obasanjo writes 18-page letter to
President Jonathan
Premium Times claims to have obtained an 18-
page letter written by an angry and frustrated
former president Olusegun Obasanjo to president
Jonathan, accusing the current president 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 titled “Before it is too late”
dated December 2, 2013
In the letter Obasanjo said President Jonathan has
'failed to deliver on his promises to Nigerians,
stem corruption, promote national unity and
strengthen national security.'
You can read the full letter HERE or continue to
read the full exclusive report by Premium Times...
From Premium Times
He said in the letter titled 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 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.”
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