In a new book written by Segun Adeniyi, the chairman of This Day editorial board, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said the last PDP President Goodluck Jonathan fouled up the polity with corruption and tribalism, and as such lost support for re-election 2015.
While Jonathan persisted in seeking his nod for the ambition, Obasanjo , according to the author, organised a meeting in Abeoukta to which he asked Jonathan to bring a witness.
Jonathan, however, presented the RCCG Overseer Pastor E.A. Adeboye and Winners Chapel Bishop David Oyedepo on January 12, 2015, fixed for the meeting.
“It was only Pastor Adeboye that Jonathan told me was coming with him, but Bishop Oyedepo is a man I also know very well, so I had no problem with his presence at the meeting,” Obasanjo was quoted as saying
The 2015 election account by the author goes further to state how Obasanjo pointedly told his godson he installed president in 2011 had violated PDP zoning arrangement for contesting again in 2015—because it was the north that was supposed to produce the presidential candidate then.
Obasanjo also stated the issue of incompetence and clannishness, as it regarded explosive public statements by ex-militant leader Asari Dokubo and Ijaw leader Edwin Clarke.
“I once asked him: ‘What is this Ijaw thing all about? Can the Ijaw people make you president?” the author quoted Obasanjo as saying.
The author equally observed Obasanjo was mostly the target of attacks by prominent Ijaw leaders and groups. This, states the author, was one of the reasons for his famous open letter to President Jonathan in December 2013.
That further deepened the rift between them up till the election year.
“I told him in the presence of his witness that I was not going to support him for a second-term and I gave my reasons. Aside the issue of zoning on which he was reneging, his stewardship up to that point had also shown very clearly that he was not up to the job,” Obasanjo told the author in December 2016.
In spite of Obasanjo’s reservation expressed behind closed doors, Jonathan still went ahead with his candidacy, leading to open confrontation between the two.
“I haven’t seen that will of persistency and consistency in Nigeria because the people that are involved in corruption, they are strongly entrenched and unless you are ready to confront them at the point of even giving your life for it, then you will give in, that is the end of it,” he told BBC Ritula Shah who moderated a debate in Switzerland by former presidents from around the world.
A year later, according to the author, Obasanjo let fly of another missile on Jonathan’s policy of establishing a pipeline special security outfit.
“Now, what are the police there for? What are all the security agencies doing? This is another chop-chop,” Mr. Obasanjo said in Abuja during a thanksgiving ceremony to mark the 50th birthday of ex-Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili .
With all these brickbats, Obasanjo claimed to have had nothing personal against Jonathan—that their disagreement was based on certain principles on which he was not prepared to compromise.
The strained relation continued until recently when Jonathan went to Abeokuta to kiss and make up with his godfather.
The book is due for public presentation in Lagos on Friday,
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