Feared Jonathan won’t be competent president
Former Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el- Rufai, has alleged a plot by
ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from
winning the 2011 election.
The alleged plot, according to El-Rufai
in his memoirs The Accidental Public Servant, was based on the
ex-President’s perception of Jonathan as a weak leader.
El-Rufai calls the scheme an “interesting move” to stop Jonathan.
Obasanjo’s preference, he says, was a
joint ticket of General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Okonjo-Iweala also served in the Obasanjo government in the same capacity.
The book, which is due for public presentation this week in Abuja, has become a hot cake.
But for security reasons, its pre-launch circulation has been restricted to a select few.
The ex-Minister, who enjoyed the
confidence of the former President and was one of his trusted aides,
said of the alleged plot: “The period between 15th January and the
deadline for submission of nominations by political parties to INEC had
its own version of intrigues. Pastor Bakare had not immediately accepted
the offer to be running mate, but the media was awash with speculations
that Buhari had chosen him.
“On 25th January, I was summoned by
former President Olusegun Obasanjo to his hotel room at the Hilton for
reasons he said were both urgent and important. On arrival, I exchanged
pleasantries with Steven Oronsaye and Akin Osuntokun in the living room
and we went straight into his bedroom.
“After greetings, Obasanjo asked if I
was still in touch with Buhari. I replied that I was not directly but
could reach him anytime I wished. He then asked that I resumed my role
of emissary between the two of them and wished to know quickly if I
could reach Buhari with a message. I responded that I could do so pretty
quickly.
“Obasanjo then said that he concurred
with my earlier belief that Jonathan would not make a competent
President and that the best presidential candidate of the whole lot was
Buhari.
“He expressed willingness to support
Buhari and go public with it if CPC and Buhari are willing to consider
his suggestions and implement them.
“Obasanjo suggested that I should
convince Buhari to pick Ngozi as his running mate, enter immediately
into an alliance with the ACN and ANPP, and then offer the Senate
President’s position to the South-West to secure Tinubu’s support.”
The former Minister said Obasanjo offered to source for four wealthy Nigerians who could finance Buhari and CPC’s campaign.
El-Rufai added: “If Buhari agreed to
these proposals, Obasanjo undertook to get three or four unnamed wealthy
people to help with funding the CPC campaign, and Obasanjo would try
bringing Labour Party to endorse the Buhari-Ngozi ticket.
“Obasanjo promised to resign from the
chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of the PDP and announce his
support for the ticket if it would be helpful. I took notes on the hotel
notepaper and left, promising to report back the next day.
“It was fortuitous that both Buhari and
Pastor Bakare were in Abuja, so along with Pastor Bakare we met Buhari
and delivered Obasanjo’s message.
“Bakare, who until then was a reluctant
running mate, saw the Obasanjo offer as good for CPC and Buhari and
hoped it would free him from the burden that Buhari had imposed on him.
“He added that since Buhari had not yet
officially announced his name as running mate, he would be happy to step
aside for Ngozi. I was simply an emissary so I was silent, hoping that
Buhari would accept so I would be free of my commitment to be at
Bakare’s side!
“Buhari smiled and asked for my opinion
as someone that knew Obasanjo pretty well. I told both of them that I
thought Obasanjo was being honest in his recommendations as I would urge
Buhari to take similar steps of merger with other parties and so on
“I doubted if Obasanjo would deliver on
the monies promised and the resignation from the PDP Board of Trustees
and did not even think the latter would help the CPC and GMB in anyway.
“I also added that Obasanjo’s faction of
Ogun PDP had just lost all their tickets to contest the next elections
and should this situation change, Obasanjo would renege on everything he
had committed to. Obasanjo may also be making another strategic move of
removing Bakare’s name from the ticket, in addition to responding to
Jonathan’s failure to ensure that his faction got the ticket by hook or
crook- something Jonathan simply refused to do, preferring to support
the state governor, Gbenga Daniel and his faction.
“Buhari restated that he thought long
and hard before deciding on Bakare and would not change his mind.
However, we all agreed to continue to engage Obasanjo and encourage
contacts with Ngozi while pushing to see real movement towards the
financial and other political commitments made.
“The same evening I returned to Obasanjo
to brief him. He was excited and promised to contact Ngozi, Labour
Party, the ANPP leadership and a few wealthy benefactors.”
The ex-Minister also revealed how
Obasanjo made a U-turn on Jonathan and threw his weight behind him
regardless of his ‘weaknesses’.
He said: “Some days later on 1st
February, I got a call from Prof. Julius Ihonvbere requesting a meeting
to follow up on my discussions with Obasanjo and Buhari. We met in the
3G offices on 2nd February with Julius and Festus Odimegwu on the same
subject.
“We exchanged information and updates on
the political situation and ended with the question posed by Obasanjo
to me and then to Julius and Festus- “How do we stop Jonathan from
getting elected, and thereby saving the country from state failure?
“We discussed various steps but
unanimously recognised that Obasanjo would abandon the plan as soon as
his temporary disagreement with the Jonathan administration was
resolved. Since we believed in what we were doing, we agreed to soldier
on under whatever scenario.
“On 7th February, we all travelled to
Abeokuta to meet with Obasanjo. Odimegwu and Julius had developed a
clear roadmap about remedying the weaknesses in Buhari’s organization
and campaign for Obasanjo to play his lead role in the anti-Jonathan
effort.
“By then, a weird Federal High Court
ruling had restored the tickets of Iyabo Obasanjo and other members of
their faction in Ogun State. So true to form, Obasanjo simply
back-tracked, rejected the roadmap he had asked us to prepare, and said
we should now explore ways of “remedying Jonathan’s weaknesses” and
supporting his candidature.
“His commitments to Buhari vanished that
day, just as we all predicted on 25th January. It was a very depressing
drive late at night to Lagos for the five of us-Prof. Julius Ihonvbere,
Festus Odimegwu, and Prof. George Obiozor with Otunba Akingboye
driving.
“We lamented Obasanjo’s consistency in
putting his personal interest before that of the nation and agreed that
never again will he get another opportunity to waste our time the way he
just did.”
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