alleged personal demands, says PDP • Ruling
party's candidate likely to win, U.S. ex-envoy
predicts
INDICATIONS emerged yesterday that the
face- off between former President Olusegun
Obasanjo and incumbent President Goodluck
Jonathan may be far from abating as the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that the
latter would soon disclose all alleged personal
demands of the former that he had turned
down since 2011 that might have fuelled the
lingering animosity.
The party also declared that its leadership
would decide on whether or not to sanction
Obasanjo over allegation of anti-party
activities.
Meanwhile, former United States Ambassador
to Nigeria, John Campbell, has revealed that
President Jonathan was the likely candidate to
win the forthcoming elections, according to
persecond news.com
Addressing a news conference in Abuja
yesterday, the Director of Media and Publicity
of the PDP Presidential Campaign
Organisation, Femi Fani- Kayode, described
Obasanjo's allegation that Jonathan was
planning to perpetuate himself in power
unconstitutional as reckless and pointing that
the allegations were assertions that were
"capable of derailing our democracy and
creating chaos in the land.
"The truth is that he knows that Jonathan will
win next month's presidential election and
that is why he wants to destroy the credibility
of the whole process right from the outset.
What he is trying to say in his latest
contribution is that if President Jonathan wins,
then the election must have been rigged right
from the outset. This is not only wrong but it
is also unfair and uncharitable."
Fani-Kayode challenged Obasanjo to prove his
weighty allegations by presenting them before
the Council of State and take it up there.
He should also report to INEC itself and
present the data of whatever sinister plan he
believes that Jonathan has to stay in power ''by
hook or by crook'' to them. He should tell INEC
whatever it is that Jonathan is doing in order
for him to stay in power by all means and he
should give them all the details. That should
be the starting point."
On Obasanjo's allegation that Jonathan was
playing out a script of perpetuating himself in
power like former Cote d'Voire President
Laurent Gbabo, Fani Kayode stated:
"Jonathan has re-affirmed his commitment to
the democratic process over and over again
and he has also said that the handover date of
May 29 is sacrosanct. In view of these
assurances, one wonders why Obasanjo is
creating such a hue and cry over nothing. What
has he seen that no one else can see? One
wonders what his motives are. Does he have
to rule every government by proxy? Must
every leader take instructions from him? Is it
a case of ''if I cannot control you and tell you
what to do then you must go?''
"President Obasanjo spoke about President
Gbagbo and he claimed that President
Jonathan was attempting to do a Gbagbo in
Nigeria. The question that must be put to him
is this: 'Who got Gbagbo out?' Was it not
Jonathan's government that played a key role
in ensuring that democracy was fully
established in the Ivory Coast and did he not
play a key role in ensuring that the Gbagbo
plan to ''stay in power forever plan'' did not
work?
"If anyone doubts this they should ask
President Alhassan Outtara of Cote d'Ivoire
the role that Jonathan and Nigeria played in
helping to restore democracy and stability to
his country.
"They should also find out the role that
Obasanjo played in attempting to keep
President Gbagbo in power at all costs and the
deep friendship that exists between the two
men. It is a matter of fact and public record
that when he was President, Obasanjo,
perhaps more than any other African Head of
State with the exception of President Jacob
Zuma of South Africa, propped up and
supported President Gbagbo and it is an irony
of fate and history that he is now condemning
the actions of his old friend and accusing
others of trying to emulate them."
"Again it is ironic that Obasanjo has accused
President Jonathan of having a grand plan to
stay in power at all costs and by all means yet
it is the same Obasanjo that tried to stay in
power for a third term even though the
Nigerian constitution specifically forbids it. He
tried all he could to change the constitution
but the whole thing failed and he was
compelled to leave power."
On Obasanjo's alleged demands from
Jonathan, Fani-Kayode stated:
"After Jonathan came to power, Obasanjo
not only tried to control and teleguide him,
but he also asked him to do a number of
things that were simply wrong and
unacceptable. It is for Jonathan himself to
divulge those things and I am sure that he
will do so at the appropriate time. Needless
to say Jonathan refused to be teleguided
and told what to do even though at all
times he showed Obasanjo maximum
respect and accorded him all the privileges,
access and courtesies that is due to a
former Head of State and a father and
mentor. This continued to be the case even
after Obasanjo consistently attempted to
undermine his government and ridicule his
efforts.
"Yet Obasanjo could not be appeased and was
not satisfied. As far as he was concerned, he
must either control Jonathan or Jonathan had
to go. That is why he decided to secretly
support the APC and became their 'navigator-
in-chief'. He was determined to pull the whole
house down rather than allow Jonathan to
return to power. This is simply because he
believes that if he cannot control someone,
that person must be destroyed. Control and
domination is an obsession for Obasanjo. That
is the bottom line. He is prepared to put even
the devil in power provided he can control
him. That is why he is so determined to stop
Jonathan and put in place an interim
government which he, or one of his
surrogates, will head. That is his plan and he is
determined to achieve it no matter what it
takes.
"Obasanjo does not want genuine democracy.
He only pretends to want it. What he wants is
control and a stooge in power. It does not
matter what type of government it is as long
as he controls it and it is headed by his
puppet. It can be a military government, a
civilian one, a democratic one, an interim
government or a government of National
Unity. To Obasanjo it does not matter as long
as he can control it. That is his objective. That
is why he hates Jonathan so much and that is
why he wishes to stop him at all costs."
"The bottom line is this: "Obasanjo's grouse
with Jonathan is personal and it has nothing to
do with Nigeria. He should leave Nigeria out
of it and let us all be. If he has a personal
score to settle with Jonathan, he should not do
so at the expense of the peace and stability of
Nigeria. If he wants to stop Jonathan then let
him attempt to do so through the democratic
process and through the ballot box and not
through foul and unconstitutional means. We
said it before and we will say it again: gone are
the days that any president can be teleguided
and controlled, because we have all come of
age."
On Obasanjo's alleged anti-party activities
Fani-Kayode said: "It is very difficult to say that
he (Obasanjo) is a member of the PDP and he
is saying these sort of things and doing these
sort of things it makes things very difficult for
us and I think with this, it is left for the party
chairman and leaders to make their own
determination on our part as the Presidential
campaign organisation to ensure that
President Jonathan gives a good fight in terms
of the elections. That is our job, we need to
take on anybody.... or any institutions or...but
he has made his choice and we have made our
choices and we intend to stand where we
stand nobody will be pushed around or
intimidate us.
"I sincerely hope and pray that Obasanjo pulls
back and rethink and join forces with us
against the opposition. It is never too late
even if it will be on the eve of the election, to
have him on our corner will be great privilege
and honour. As long as he stands on the other
side and continues to cast aspersions on the
character of the president and raise questions
on him, what the president wants to do and
suggesting that the president wants to stay in
power by hook or by crook and all that sort of
stuff, we cannot possibly expect us to keep
quiet. We have to set the records straight. We
have to stand with our president and with our
party."
Campbell, a Ralph Bunche senior fellow for
Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign
Relations in a report titled, 'Nigeria's 2015
Presidential Election: Contingency Planning
Memorandum Update, the envoy said,
"despite the strength of the opposition,
Jonathan remains the likely—but not certain—
winner.
According to him, the 2015 elections again
might precipitate violence that could
destabilise Nigeria, and Washington has even
less leverage in Abuja than it did in 2011.
In his recommendations to the U.S
government, he advised the Obama
administration not to comment prematurely
on the quality of the elections. Observers
from the National Democratic Institute and
the International Republic Institute are likely
to issue preliminary assessments immediately
after the polls close. So, too, will observers
from the European Union, the
Commonwealth, and the African Union. There
will be media pressure for early, official
comment. But, following a close election and
the violence likely to follow, the timing and
content of official U.S. statements should take
into account the views of the vibrant Nigerian
human rights community, which will likely be
the most accurate.
The U.S Secretary of State in the wake of the
elections postponement issued a statement
declaring that the shift was unacceptable, a
statement that has been rejected by some
Nigerians as hypocritical.
Campbell further asked the U.S government
to facilitate and support humanitarian
assistance. The north is already in desperate
need of humanitarian assistance, with the
prospect of famine looming. If the
postelection period is violent, there may be
need for international humanitarian assistance
in
many other parts of the country.
Campbell has been generally regarded a critic
of the Jonathan administration, an ally of APC
leader and former Vice President Atiku
Abubakar.
Meanwhile, the Southwest Zone of the
Presidential Campaign Council of the PDP has
said that the
postponement of the elections was a crucial
opportunity for the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to remedy " its
apparent lack of preparedness to conduct a
minimally credible presidential election on
the earlier date of February 14th 2015."
Also, the Chairman, Organisation and
Mobilisation Committee of the South West
PDP, Prince Buruji Kashamu, has called on
appropriate authorities in Nigeria to
investigate, prosecute and imprison Obasanjo
for alleged acts of corruption perpetrated
during the latter's regime as president.
Making the call yesterday during a press
conference at his Lekki, Lagos residence,
Buruji, who presented a researched document
entitled: 'Obasanjo Wants to Rule Nigeria
Again,' which contained over 500 alleged
corruption acts carried out during the latter's
administration, said the former president
lacked the moral right to castigate Jonathan.
On his part, a former Deputy National
Chairman, PDP South West, Chief Olabode
George, eually berated Obasanjo for
comparing President Jonathan with former
president of Ivory Coast, Larence Gbagbo as
an insult to Nigeria.
Addressing the media in his Ikoyi residence
yesterday, George said Obasanjo was simply
aiming to destabilise the country based on his
selfish motive
George and Buruji accused the former
president engaging in anti-PDP activities
making unguarded utterances capable of
heating up the polity.
In a statement yesterday in Ibadan by its
chairman, publicity sub-committee, Chief Akin
Oshuntokun, the campaign council said it was
"a matter of great concern that INEC appears
unconcerned about such potentially explosive
and puzzling lapse of sharp disparities in the
distribution of the Permanent Voter cards
(PVCS) which it says, systematically puts a
section of the country at clear advantage
whilst pitting others at severe disadvantage."
It went on: "A distribution pattern in which
insurgency ravaged areas record over 70%
collection rate of PVCS to the 40% average
distribution rate in the relatively stable and
peaceful South West calls for concern and
most certainly requires a lot of explanation.
More puzzling still is the surprising
acquiescence of the All Peoples Congress (APC)
leadership in the South West in an emergent
electoral situation in which majority of voters
in the zone would have been disenfranchised."
Further, it said "there is no more eloquent
demonstration of this tacit endorsement and
connivance than the description of the
postponement as a 'coup against democracy'
by the APC national leader, Senator Ahmed
Bola Tinubu.
"For the APC leadership to have referred to
the postponement of the election dates as a
coup against democracy, even as it became
apparent that about 60% of the people of the
region would not have been able to vote, is
sheer wickedness and a coup against the
people they claim to lead."
It further queries "how a remedial
postponement that responds to the electoral
disempowerment of a less than 40% collection
rate in Lagos state amount to coup against
democracy, insisting that the INEC Chairman,
Professor Atahiru Jega has not been able to
convincingly justify the high rate of
distribution of PVCs in areas of high tension
and terrorist attacks relative to the security
conducive Yoruba area where the PVCs have
been barely available for collection.
The committee urges INEC to take urgent
measures to eradicate the prevalence of
underage voting in areas that have been
clearly identified with such credibility eroding
practice."
It further stated that "the aggregate
percentage of distribution of PVCs, by the
figures released by the INEC, shows in an
inexplicable manner that the South West lags
behind, adding that the development would
have disenfranchised more than 45% of likely
voters on the average in the region.
"The argument that the high percentage would
not have mattered because there was never a
time that there is 100 per cent turn out of
voters is reckless and should be
discountenanced, insisting that the right to
vote is inalienable to every Nigerian of voting
age.
"The deliberate attempt to disenfranchise
some set of residents as unravelled by the
Resident Electoral Commission in Lagos
recently is worrisome and deserves more than
cursory attention stressing that the announced
extension period is opportunity to make
amends.
"We ask that the postponement of the election
by six weeks be capitalised upon by INEC, to,
as a matter of urgency, provide the PVCs and
make necessary logistic arrangements for
their speedy distribution
"The INEC chairman should endeavour to
jealously guard the good track record and
reputation he earned for conducting the
credible 2011 widely adjudged to meet
international standard. There is the need for
him to disabuse the mind of the public of any
misgiving and resolve to remain a fair and
unbiased umpire."
It thus enjoined "all residents of the zone to
exhibit vigilance and dedication and wait to
collect their PVCs so as to support PDP
candidates across the zone and in the
presidential election, even as it demanded
that Nigerians should be vigilant and reject
war mongers now masquerading as change
champions through the power of the ballots.
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