How Obasanjo foisted Yar’Adua on Nigeria, by Fayose

• Says criticism of Buhari not personal

EKITI State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, yesterday disclosed that the committee set up by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2006 to get a presidential candidate for the party did not consider the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, rather, he was forced on the party by then out-going President Olusegun Obasanjo.

   Fayose, who headed the committee, said the party had many healthy and competent members from the north already in the shortlist for the office but that Obasanjo insisted on Yar’Adua, who was not willing to contest on health ground then.

   And speaking in Ado Ekiti yesterday through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, Fayose said his criticism of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has nothing personal but to expose the APC’s “many lies.”

   “I remember then, as the ad hoc chairman of the PDP committee to shop for the presidential candidate to replace Obasanjo, a crop of suitable, brilliant, healthy and competent northern politicians in the PDP were in my shortlist for Obasanjo to pick from, but he overruled the list and asked me to contact the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua because he preferred him,” he revealed.

   “In fairness to the late Yar’Adua, he objected to the offer on health ground, but Obasanjo insisted that he must be the president. I am not against the north, rather if Obasanjo had picked from the list of names submitted by my committee, certainly a northerner replacing Obasanjo would have ruled this country till 2015. 

   “As an insider who saw everything and who again have noticed the repeat of the episode of 2006, I must talk. There is nothing bad in allowing President Goodluck Jonathan from the south to complete the two terms he is allowed constitutionally and in 2019, a real candidate from the north, not one manipulated by the South-West APC, will emerge to take over.‎ 

   “These APC leaders operate in deceit, the wellbeing of this country is secondary to them. This is the party that ruled Ekiti for only four years and grounded the state with huge debts. That 2006 scenario is again being re-enacted, with Obasanjo and APC leaders branding (Major)-Gen. Buhari to be the president of this country.”

   Reacting to the barrage of criticisms trailing his mode of campaign for President Jonathan’s re-election, Fayose said he has nothing personal against Buhari but that he owes nobody any apology for exposing the hypocrisy of APC leaders, who he accused of placing personal interest far above national interest.

   According to him, the APC had not only packaged lies and tried to foist such on Nigerians, but had also compromised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the election if it had held on February 14.