What Role For Obasanjo In 2015? Donald Ojogo — July 8, 2014 Recent developments within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), especially as regards the frosty relationship between former president Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan have painted a broader, plain picture of a suppressed animosity. With the former Nigerian leader gradually inching away from the affairs of the party and President Jonathan’s 2015 ambition, DONALD OJOGO asks, what other roles would he play in 2015? While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party. “Buruji Kashamu has been so extolled in PDP in South-West geo-political zone which I personally find unsavoury. Politics played by any national political party must have morality, decency, discipline, principles and leadership examples as cardinal practices of the party. “Since I stick in my practice of party politics to the hallowed and cherished principles enunciated above, I take this opportunity to let you know that while I continue to remain a card-carrying member of PDP, I cannot and I will not subscribe to a wanted habitual criminal being installed as my zonal leader in the party; a criminal for whom extradition has been requested by the US government. “In the meantime, I will consider withdrawing my activity with PDP at local, state, zonal and national levels until the anomalous and shameful situation is corrected.” The above, being part of an epistle forwarded to the national leadership of the ruling party by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, candidly sparked off a no less deeper, more suspicious relationship between him and his erstwhile godson and president, Goodluck Jonathan. Before the letter, Obasanjo had written the president, highlighting various infractions, political and otherwise allegedly committed by the president. He had taken time to examine the president’s envisioned 2015 second term ambition just as he concluded by raising moral questions and posers for Jonathan. Expectedly too, President Jonathan, albeit a long delay, fired back. For close watchers of the former president, his interest is as important as the national interest as he often equates or juxtaposes both. For this reason, whatever he finds detestable at a point finds a place in national discourse. According to a former aide of Obasanjo, the former president ‘defends even the indefensible’ when the need arises. “To those of us close to Baba, (as Obasanjo is fondly called), we wait for his mien and actions whenever issues of national importance come up for his attention; we don’t just jump into conclusion simply because he is involved. “Some issues you think will attract his anger usually take a reverse form and vice versa; so largely, the former president’s reaction to issues depends largely on his personal likeness or hatred for the point man of such issues at hand,” he said. Perhaps, the former president’s aide may have made a valid point as events leading to the eventual defection of the five former PDP governors provided a near-proof of sort. To the surprise of many political watchers, not only did Obasanjo play host to the governors who had had an open confrontation with President Jonathan, he indeed, usher in hitherto ‘detestable’ political foes to discuss national issues as far as the focus of the discourse centred around a subject-Jonathan. Even though somewhat ambivalent traces of political rapprochement have occasionally reared for attention, the relationship between both Obasanjo and Jonathan has displayed a suppressed animosity for each other; and several instances abound as regards this. True to his threat to stay away from all activities of the PDP, the party watched from a hapless distance as one of Obasanjo’s trusted allies and former governor of Ekiti state, Engineer Segun Oni dumped the party for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) just a few weeks to the now decided governorship election in Ekiti state. Even though the former president appeared ambivalent in the case of Oni’s defection to the APC, the political disadvantage that would have been visited on the PDP could only be better imagined than experienced. The indisputable fact would have been a gradual, sustained and smooth of switch in political preference from the PDP to the APC if the later had won the governorship election in Ekiti. Political pundits are of the view that former governor of Osun state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, one of Obasanjo’s main men in the southwest was said to be awaiting the outcome of the Ekiti election to commence his move to the APC. LEADERSHIP gathered that Oni’s move to the APC was to serve as a precursor to a gale of Obasanjo-induced APC-bound defections in the south west ahead of the 2015 presidential election. A source close to the former president said the move was aimed at weakening the PDP support base in the region even as its main objective was to surge a forceful political base for the Kano state governor, Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso as he prepares for the APC presidential contest. By implication, it was not unlikely that all Obasanjo supporters nationwide would have taken a cue from the planned mass movement into the APC for the Kwankwaso project. But even at this point that the APC’s loss of Ekiti appears to have slowed down the pace of political activism in the southwest, Obasanjo appears set to back Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido to challenge the president at the primaries. That may have informed moves by the southwest leadership to bother less about reconciling Obasanjo and the president, at least for now. “We have stopped discussing PDP with Obasanjo again because we know he has made up his mind not to have anything to do with our party. Remember, he once hosted the APC chieftains and he said he had become the father of all parties in Nigeria. “People like Kwankwaso have been visiting him for consultations and discussing the party with him has become a thing of the past at least for now,” a PDP BoT member told our correspondent. Obasanjo’s underhand moves notwithstanding, the current leadership of the PDP in the southwest appears set to curtail his activities with some advising the former leader to play the fatherly role rather than persistent interference in partisan politics. Already, one time South-West leader of the ruling party, Chief Bode George, declared that Obasanjo has no need to be getting himself involved unnecessarily in Nigeria’s politics. George, who granted an online interview to a national newspaper(Punch) urged the former Head of State to stay in Ogun State, where ‘we would all go to consult him’as he advised Obasanjo to learn from former president Shehu Shagari and General Abdusalami Abubakar, who he said have enjoyed praises from Nigerians because of their calmness on politics and other national issues. In his words: “He (Obasanjo) is dancing to music which only he can hear. He has no need to be getting himself involved unnecessarily. Baba Obasanjo should stay in Ogun State, where we would all go to consult him. Look at former president Shehu Shagari and General Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd.), who many say birthed democracy. Abdulsalami is being praised today. You should do things that will make you be remembered for good tomorrow. After two terms and a glorious ending, he should be a father to all.” But if George was pensive enough, governor-elect of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose was not ready to pamper Obasanjo. In a recent interview, Fayose warned Obasanjo to stop sitting on the fence or get booted out of the party. “Even in the PDP, in the south-west, no leader will disparage the party. We would suspend you. It doesn’t matter whether you are a former president or former governor; if you disparage the party again, we will take you out. I am telling you expressly. “By no small means, posterity has put me in this position; if anybody wants to join the APC, let him go there. If former president Olusegun Obasanjo wants to join the APC, let him go to APC. Segun Oni has gone, we don’t beg for membership. “We want loyal members of our party. Obasanjo should stop making uncomplimentary statements about the party. If he continues, we will suspend him; nobody is bigger than this party,” Fayose said. But a political disciple of Obasanjo accused the PDP especially President Jonathan, of being ungrateful to the man who brought him to political limelight and said if Jonathan needed him he knows what to do. “Those accusing Baba Obasanjo of working against the second term of Jonathan should be fair to themselves. When Baba accused Jonathan of planning for the second term instead of honouring the gentleman’s pact he struck shortly before the 2011 election, he not only denied it but his foot soldiers were calling him all sorts of names. Till today, President Jonathan has refused to appreciate what the southwest under Obasanjo did for him,” a former senator said. The source also accused Jonathan of ignoring his advice to stop interacting with Buruji Kashamu because of his alleged criminal activities in the United States. “You would agree with me that Jonathan has not been showing any interest in reconciling with his political mentor. Look at the case of Buruji Kashamu, whom Baba disclosed he is having a pending mater in the United States; the president has turned a deaf ear to that counsel; instead…the same man is now the de facto southwest leader of the PDP.” As 2015 approaches, political actors within the polity will no doubt bring on board very interesting angles to the contest. One of those to dot the spots remains Obasanjo. But in 2015, where would he bend towards, APC or PDP? Leadership.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 10:48:26 +0000
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