WAS a very different Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who was in Ibadan to meet with a
frontline politician in the capital city of Oyo State recently.
Unlike his usually boisterous, self confident mien, former President
Obasanjo appeared humble, perhaps for the first time, in his life.
During the Ibadan visit, last, the Owu Chief appeared to have a very good
reason to be worried as it was obvious that he is, perhaps, faced with a
formidable fight that could be as immense as the horrifying experience he had
in prison during the reign of General Sani Abacha.
In Ibadan, he made his equally worried friend, a leader of an opposition party
and former governor of Oyo State who received him along with political
associates, to know that things were really being made to turn bad for him at
the moment and blamed President Goodluck Jonathan whom he called unprintable
names for his woes.
everything to help into power, has bitten the fingers that fed him.
A source in the gathering quoted the former president as saying saying:
“Jonathan… has betrayed me.”
According to the former president, it was unthinkable that the president could
turn against him after all he had done for him, bringing him practically from
obscurity to limelight to become the president. He was said to have vowed to do
everything in his power to ensure his discomfort does not continue in 2015.
At that stage, the political leaders moved to the inner recesses of the house
for a strategy session which, obviously have to do with how to engage the
impending battle.
Sources from the meeting said the former president was not leaving anything to
chance in the struggle to engage Jonathan squarely, in the 2015 race.
According to the sources, in his calculations, the Peoples Democratic Party,
(PDP) would likely, field Jonathan as its candidate for the 2015 Presidential
election, in spite of any opposition within the party.
The President, Obasanjo was cited to have said, has pocketed the national
executive members of the party. Hence, they will do his bidding any day.
Consequently, the only option left to stop Jonathan is for politicians of
like minds in PDP as well as the opposition to come under one umbrella to stop
him.
It was learnt that a major plank of Obasanjo and his associates disagreement
with the President, which will also form the thrust of their campaign against
his candidacy in 2015, is an alleged non-performance of the Jonathan
administration, especially, in the area of security, in spite of the immense
amount of resources available to it. Besides, the former President is
reportedly, miffed that the President does not consult him on crucial issues
neither does he listen to his advice when offered.
What is said to have pained the former Obasanjo most is the attempt by the
Jonathan administration to discredit most of his administration’s programmes
some of which had been discontinued while the impression is also being created
that he was responsible for the woes of the country.
The retired army General was said to be particularly, unhappy with the loans
Jonathan’s administration was taking, only half a decade after he (Obasanjo)
had cleared the nation’s huge debt and received debt forgiveness from creditor
countries. He was also said to have complained of the growing spate of
insecurity in the land especially with the macabre rave of Boko Haram attacks
in up country.
All these blames he was said to have laid squarely on Jonathan’s shoulders whom
he described as somewhat weak and undecisive.
He was said to have lamented the dire situation which the PDP in the South West
found itself, currently, stressing that it was a ploy by the President to
ensure that the party in the zone which championed his emergence in 2010 is
kept perpetually in disarray to prevent it from providing a credible opposition
to his re-election bid within the fold.
The former president was particularly piqued that despite the fact that it was
the South West that was instrumental to his rise into power since 2010, the
zone had nothing to show for bracing all odds to ensure his success.
According to the former president, the zone is nowhere to be found in the
current political calculations of the country. Hence in places where decisions
that affect the existence of the nation are taken, the highest decision levels
at the executive, legislative and judiciary arms of government, the South West
is not represented. He added that the same thing obtains at the top management
level in the federal civil service and even in the military top brass where
they have become the underdog.
This development, he noted, is further worsened by the fact that in the entire
South West, there is no high-ranking political figure in office that could
serve as rallying point for it’s PDP chieftains to counter the antics of the
opposition in the zone.
As a result, he said the zone was left at the mercy of the opposition Action
Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) which has been given free reign to roam the zone
such that it had the temerity to be broaching the idea of a regional exclusion
in the zone.
He specifically, blamed President Jonathan for this development, as he allowed
the North to hijack the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives
which, according to Obasanjo, was allocated to the South West zone.
The former President reasoned that if Jonathan was keen on retaining the
equation, he could have stopped them in order not to allow the South West to be
relegated to the background in the national political equation.
He therefore deemed it a game by Jonathan to keep the zone down so that he can
use it for his own advantage.
Consequently, Obasanjo is said to be forging an alliance with the north,
preying on that zone’s disdain and disenchantment with the Jonathan
administration. Sources said the former president has been criss-crossing the
country, especially, parts of the north, holding consultations with leaders
across board on the way forward.
He is said to be touting the idea that the Presidency should go to the north in
2015, while already shopping for a credible candidate of northern root that
would confront Jonathan.
If he succeeds and the North backs his initiative, this will be one of the rare
times in Nigeria’s post-independence history that the two regions will broker a
political alliance.
It is yet to be seen how far the former president can go given the fact that
most of the people he has been holding consultations with tend to be cautious
about jumping into his wagon, considering especially, the way he dealt with the
north during his eight years in power.
Indeed, many of the northern elders tend to read the current situation as some
kind of nemesis that is catching up with the former President whom they
believed betrayed them in 1999 after they had helped him into power in spite of
spirited opposition from his people in the South West and the South East who
did not want him as president or had better candidates to push.
Some of them even queried his credentials to condemn Jonathan for
non-performance and his hints of corruption in the current administration,
insisting that he was not better when he was in power.
Perhaps more damning for the ex-president is that some of the people he had
contacted within the PDP and had reportedly, touted for replace Jonathan as
President in 2015, have come out to turn the idea down. One of such persons,
the governor of Rivers State, yesterday disclosed that the story being spread
that he is going to run in 2015 as a vice presidential candidate is not true as
he habours no such ambition. Similarly, others have said in several fora that
they had no agreement with him.
The Nigerian Compass learnt that some of them, mostly serving governors,
were said to have towed the path of the Rivers governor, in order not to incur
the wrath of President Jonathan, who may appear lame but is capable of acting
decisively, when matters get to a head.
Those who flee from being counted were said to have cited the cases of former
governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, who is now languishing in jail in
London on corruption charges as well as former governor of Bayelsa State,
Timipre Sylva, who was denied the PDP ticket for a second term in office over
irreconcilable differences with the President.
President Jonathan may also have scored a bulls-eye against Obasanjo during his
last media chat when he nailed the former president in a succint refrence to
the oddities of the invasion of Odi, Bayelsa State by the military during the
administration of the former president, saying only women, children and old
people were killed instead of the militants who were the targets.
The reference to Odi, many analyst note, is a veiled but unmistakeable threat
that the ex-president may be dragged before the world court of justice for war
crimes if he does not allow Jonathan a peaceful reign.
The coming weeks will definitely witness more of the battles ahead. Whether the
former president still has the guts and courage to continue to confront
Jonathan after this is yet to be seen.
Compass
