HOW BUHARI BENEFITED FROM MY OPPOSITION TO JONATHAN

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has explained how President Muhammadu Buhari benefited from his opposition to former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 general election.

Obasanjo said in a new book, “Against The Run of Play”, written by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, I warned him not to make Diezani petroleum minister.

There were certain decisions taken by Jonathan very early in his administration that pointed to the fact that the office was bigger than him and one of them was the appointment of a petroleum minister, he said.

According to Obasanjo, he cautioned Jonathan not to appoint Diezani Alison-Madueke to such a sensitive sector but the president ignored his counsel.

Jonathan gave me the impression that he was not going to give her the portfolio but at the end he did and we can see the consequence. He, of course, knew what he was doing, Obasanjo stated.

For about two years, the ex-Petroleum Minister has been under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The former President recalled how Jonathan became the Vice President in 2007 and how he backed him to be elected president in 2011 to solve minority agitation.

He said:

You know of course that Jonathan was not my first choice as running mate to your late boss (Yar’Adua), it was Dr. Peter Odili. But whether by fate or some conspiracy, Odili had hurdles that made it impossible for him to take the position. That was how I settled for Jonathan.

I saw the emergence of Jonathan as an opportunity to solve the minority agitation. The three majority ethnic groups can always sort themselves out but not so for the minority.

A good example is my state here in Ogun. Despite the best intentions, nobody from Ogun West has been able to become governor because of this minority issue and it will take a conscious effort to make it happen.

So, it was in that context that I had to plead with prominent people in the North to allow Jonathan run for a term.

On Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015, Obasanjo spoke of how the ex-President told him that he would not seek a second term in office.

I confronted him several times but he kept deceiving himself and when I could no longer put up with it, I had to register my opposition to the idea on record as I did in my letter to him.

I didn’t join them in supporting Buhari; I joined in opposing Jonathan so Buhari was just a beneficiary of my opposition to Jonathan since my opposition was AOBJ: Any Option But Jonathan.

Jonathan and his handlers believed they could buy the election and they were so arrogant about it that the PDP would print only one nomination for him and him alone.

If he was wise, he would have yielded the ticket to somebody else in the PDP.

He said although Jonathan enlisted Pastor Enoch Adeboye and Bishop David Oyedepo to beg him at the Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, he said he stood his ground that Jonathan must abide by one term agreement.

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.

I told him in the presence of his witnesses 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 at that point had also shown very clearly that he was not up to the job.

The former president, who also criticised the role played by the military in the last election, said he suspected that Jonathan was not really afraid about life after office but Buhari, his successor.

I believe the President’s concern or fear is not about life after office per se, because he and I have had occasions to talk about this both seriously and jovially.

I believe the President’s fear is particularly motivated by the person he sees as his likely successor, that is General Buhari.

I believe the people would have been telling him that Buhari is a hard man; he would fight corruption and he (Jonathan) may end up in jail if not in the grave, Obasanjo narrated in the book.

The former Senate President, David Mark, said that he saw the defeat coming and had pointed out the unrealistic voting projections made by the party about the North to the former president and the conspiracy against him but he was not taken seriously.

He said Jonathan should have seen the handwriting on the wall and done something about what was pointed out to him but no action was taken.

Mark lamented,

I saw it and at difference times, I pointed out to him and the party that the projections being made by some people around the president about what the voting pattern in the north would were wrong.

I could see the conspiracy and the gang-up building up in the north against the aspiration of Jonathan but my voice was drowned out by those who took it for granted that a sitting president, and one from PDP, could not lose, Mark said.

The former Senate President also mentioned that the former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, was also aware that Jonathan was not strong in the North but apparently had little to say in the campaign to re-elect Jonathan.

Some people were deceiving the president with the kind of false scenarios they were painting for him. The VP could see the conspiracy but I don’t know how much influence he had on the campaign. Why Jonathan couldn’t see it until it was too late is what I find difficult to understand, Mark pointed out.