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Polls Shift: OBJ, PDP Back In The Trenches

By EDITOR
14 February 2015   |   10:29 pm
• You’ll Be Disgraced Out Of Power, OBJ Tells Jonathan  • No; You Can’t Distract Us — Fani-Kayode FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, returned to the trenches, over the postponement of the 2015 general elections following Obasanjo’s allegation that the polls were shifted to pave way for President Goodluck…

Obasanjo-02

• You’ll Be Disgraced Out Of Power, OBJ Tells Jonathan

 • No; You Can’t Distract Us — Fani-Kayode

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, returned to the trenches, over the postponement of the 2015 general elections following Obasanjo’s allegation that the polls were shifted to pave way for President Goodluck Jonathan’s victory. 

 Obasanjo, at his Hilltop Mansion in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, renewed his attack on Jonathan, stating that the President will be disgraced out of office.   The former leader likened President Jonathan to former Ivorian leader, Laurent Gbagbo, who was disgraced in the country’s elections. Gbabo had shifted presidential poll and when the election was held, he was defeated in a run-off by Alhassan Ouattara. Yet he failed to handover power, clinging to power at all costs.

  Obasanjo accused Jonathan of being behind the postponement of the general elections in the face of imminent defeat. He said Jonathan used force on Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    “Gbagbo kept shifting the election date in his country ‎until he lost at the poll and refused to hand over to opposition leader, Alhassan Ouattara, thus setting Cote d’Ivoire in crisis,” Obasanjo said. 

   Obasanjo said, “The shift is part of a grand plan by President Goodluck Jonathan to cling to power or create chaos in the country in case his secret plot fails. It is not true that the general elections were shifted because of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast. This is because countries with full-scale wars still conduct elections.

  “Gbagbo was the former President of Cote d’Ivoire and Gbagbo made sure he postponed the election in his country until he was sure he would win and then allowed the election to take place. He got an inconclusive election in the first ballot and I believe this is the sort of thing Nigeria may fall into if I am right in what I observed as the grand plan.

  “And then in the run-off, Gbagbo lost with eight per cent behind Ouattara and then refused to hand over. All reasonable persuasion and pleading was rebuffed by him and he unleashed horror in that country until nemesis caught up with him. I believe that we may be seeing the repeat of Gbagbo or what I called Gbagbo saga here in Nigeria. I hope not.

  “Jonathan is scared of handing over to Buhari because the president fears what his successor might do to him and others if he loses the presidential election. The service chiefs, who reportedly failed to guarantee security for the elections, ought to have been fired by the president.

  “The President is following his own grand plan or his aides and associates are working a script, ‎they are playing a script. What again it looks to me is that the President is trying to play Gbagbo.

  “It was even made worse when the President in the media chat on the 11th of this month claimed not to have knowledge or not to have authorised it. I get worried, very worried that if the President of Nigeria is not in charge of security, maintenance of law and order and such a decision can be taken behind him, then, there is danger.

  “Assuming that is true, then the President is not ruling and then who are the shadow figures who are ruling us? It means that one day, this country would be plunged into chaos, into commotion, into confusion and the President would say, ‘I do not know about it.’ Of course, President can run but he cannot run pass God.

  “I wonder what those security people are saying that they will finish Boko Haram in six weeks, what they could not do since 2009. Countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia have held elections in spite of ongoing wars.

  “Boko Haram problem has been with us since 2009. So, to say that what we have not been able to achieve in six years, we will achieve in six weeks, let us wait and see, that would be my own thing but when people want to make excuses, they should look for excuses that are tenable.”

But Director of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, in a statement, said the party would not be distracted by Obasanjo’s antics, which he described as “sad and unfortunate.”

According to Fani-Kayode, Obasanjo, who Nigerians accord a great deal of respect, should not have “misread the situation so badly.”  

  “It is sad and unfortunate that President Olusegun Obasanjo, a father of the nation and a man that we all revere and have immense respect for, could have misread the situation so badly. “It is simply not true that President Goodluck Jonathan wishes to remain in power at all costs and the suggestion that he has a hidden agenda or that he somehow imposed his will on INEC by getting them to postpone the elections is baseless and absurd.

   “The security chiefs made their recommendations and there were numerous other challenges that INEC had which caused them to postpone the elections for six weeks. This was INEC’s decision and not Jonathan’s.

The reasons for that postponement were profound and legitimate and we have made it clear all along that whether the election was on the 14th February or any other day President Jonathan is more than ready. 

     “President Goodluck Jonathan has also made it clear that, no matter what happens, the handover date of  May 29 will stand after the elections have been fought and won. What more does President Obasanjo want to hear?

     “It is most uncharitable and unfair for him to suggest that President Jonathan wishes to remain in power by hook or by crook, because that is not the nature of Jonathan. It is even worse for him to compare him to President Laurent Gbagbo.” 

    

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