Abdullahi Adamu, the All
Progressives Congress (APC) senator representing Nasarawa west, says President
Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war should have consumed ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Adamu, a former governor of
Nasarawa state, said this in an interview with reporters on Monday.
Reacting to the letter Obasanjo
wrote to the president asking him not to seek re-election, Adamu said the elder
statesman lack the moral standing to give such advice.
He said Obasanjo did all within
his power to secure a third term in office but denied it consistently.
“Chief Obasanjo said President
Buhari is selective in his anti-corruption war. I agree with him because if the
president were not selective, Chief Obasanjo himself would be in the dock today
on trial on charges of corruption arising from the corrupt practices in the
pursuit of his third term gambit in the national assembly in 2006,” Adamu said.
“He (Obasanjo) knows, as well as
I and other leading members of the PDP, that he badly wanted it and initiated
the process of constitutional amendment. He bribed each member of the national
assembly who signed to support the amendment, with the whopping sum of
N50million.
“The fresh mint money was taken
in its original boxes presumably from the vaults of the Central Bank of Nigeria
and distributed among the legislators.
“The money was not his, and it
was not appropriated by the national assembly, as required by law. I therefore,
agree that in failing to make former President Obasanjo account for the money,
President Buhari is waging his anti-corruption war selectively.
“Nor should we forget that
President Buhari has also not bothered to interrogate Obasanjo’s role in the
Halliburton scandal for which some Americans are cooling their heels in jail.
Perhaps President Buhari might wish to look in the Siemens affairs in which the
Obasanjo administration was indicted.”
The lawmaker said since he left
office as a military ruler, Obasanjo has taken it upon himself to attack his
successors.
“Since he left office on October
1, 1979, to local and international applause, Obasanjo has systematically
sought to undermine every federal administration after him. He has today set up
himself as the moral conscience of the nation,” he said.
“He believes he has acquired the
wisdom of King Solomon and has consequently imposed on himself the right to
decide who rules us and how we should be ruled.
“Perhaps, part of the reason is
that before leaving office in 2007, his party, the PDP, conferred on him the
titles of Maker of Modern Nigeria and Father of the Nation. Such titles do have
a heady way of making a man seeing his head bedecked in the halos of
self-righteousness.”
Adamu alleged that Obasanjo’s
eight years in government almost ruined democratic governance in Nigeria as a
result of “self-delusion and messianic mentality”.
“He waged his anti-corruption in
a manner intended to rubbish all our reserved institutions such as the courts
and the national assembly in a way to be the only Nigerian without palm oil on
his hands,” he said.
“The courts quaked over his
unconstitutional rampage. Chief Obasanjo left our democracy in a lurch. He was
like a wrecking ball. In 2007, he alone, decided his successor in office
contrary to the rules of the game, the repercussions and consequences of which
are now history.
“I worked closely with Chief
Obasanjo in his eight years in office as president when l was governor of
Nasarawa state. I found many things to admire in him.
“I admire his patriotism and his
hard work. But he systematically sabotaged his legacy by bending the system to
his personal service and promotion. I do not admire his single-minded
determination to promote himself as the strongest and the most incorruptible
leader Nigeria has ever had.
“He waged his anti-corruption war
in a manner intended to rubbish all our revered institutions such as the courts
and the National Assembly and leave him as the only Nigerian without palm oil
on his hands.”
He accused Obasanjo of attempting
to rubbish all former presidents and making himself the most successful.
“As a friend, I wish to advise
the former president to pull back from the dangerous path of rubbishing all
presidents that came into office after him. Bringing everyone down is not a
patriotic duty,” he said.
“I fear that if he continues
along this path, he would, sooner than later overreach himself and begin the
inevitable descent into national nuisance and irrelevance. That would be a
self-inflicted wound and a personal tragedy.”
He warned Obasanjo to desist from
such pattern, else he “will end up being a national nuisance and irrelevant
figure”.
Adamu also descended on former
military President Ibrahim Babangida, who like Obasanjo, asked Buhari to step
down in 2019.
He blamed Babangida for some of
the economic problems in the country were caused by Babangida‘s “faulty”
transition programme.
“I wish to remind the general
that although men have short memories, history has a long memory. We can trace
nearly all our present economic and political problems to his transition
programme,” he said.
“We cannot forget SAP that sapped
the economy or the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election for
which the nation is still paying a stiff price. It is not always advisable to
be holier-than-thou.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com