YOU ARE AN ELECTION RIGGER WITH NO COMPARISM, TINUBU BLAST OBJ



 Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, took a swipe at  the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo accusing him of being responsible for the flaws in Nigeria’s political economy since 1999.

All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former President Olusegun Obasanjo

Obasanjo, in his  state of the nation address,  tagged Points for Concern and Action, had expressed concern over the impartiality and competence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a credible election.

Reacting to the former President’s criticisms, Tinubu described Obasanjo as an “election rigger without peer.”

In a letter titled Chief Obasanjo – At war against his own deeds, Tinubu said the former president is shameless and has a wicked sense of humour.

The statement reads: “Former President Obasanjo is many things to many people; but he is all things unto himself. His recent contribution to our political discourse wherein he alleges plots to steer the coming elections shows he benefits from an exceedingly faulty memory, is purely shameless or has a most wicked sense of humor. Perhaps all three are facets of his makeup and were equally on display in his latest prosaic display.” the letter read in part.

“The crux of his long tirade was the allegation that INEC is poised to cook the election results. Chief Obasanjo should not get his dander up and waste good ink for nothing. This election will be a free and open exercise of the people’s right to choose their leaders. Obasanjo makes fiery allegations against this right but offers no corroborating evidence; he presents only reams of words. This is because Obasanjo is projecting onto the APC the misconduct he would wrought if still in power. Yet, the ways of Obasanjo are not those of the APC. And this difference has meant the better for Nigeria.

“Moreover, Chief Obasanjo should be the last to complain about election rigging. His administration was an unalloyed miscarriage of justice and of the best aspirations of the Nigerian people. We all know he was not elected in 1999. He was handed Nigeria on a silver platter; perhaps because Nigeria was so easily given that he went about treating the nation as if it was a less than precious thing; he thought it was a cheap give-away not a privilege to govern this nation.

“This man should have positioned himself to be the father of the nation. All the goodwill that could be granted a political figure was bestowed on him. The global economy was such that it fueled our growth. Everyone wanted Nigeria to succeed after emerging from years of noxious military rule. Despite the flawed exercise that rendered him president, we all bit our tongues in hope that he would say and do the right things that would move Nigeria forward.

“Instead of being a unifying figure as Commander-in-chief, he lowered himself to being a divisive, vindictive conniver. There was no table which he neared that he did not upset and overturn. There was no one who came into his company for any period of time with whom he did not fall out if he expresses a thought contrary to one of his.

“Given the vast margin between the good he could have achieved and the nebulous feats that comprise his true record, Chief Obasanjo is the person most responsible for the flaws in the Nigerian political economy since 1999. His ego is as expansive as the firmament but his good deeds would fit into a modest sachet with ample room to spare.

“The worst of Obasanjo’s record, I have yet to describe. When it comes to elections, he has been a rigger without peer. There is no election which occurred under Obasanjo’s watch or in which he participated that did not involve cheating on his part. Even the late President Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua admitted he was the beneficiary of a flawed election engineered by none other than today’s vociferous complainant. For Obasanjo to lament over electoral malpractice is tantamount to the ocean complaining that a few raindrops are causing it to get wet.”

Also, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof  Itse Sagay, yesterday, tackled former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s outburst against President Buhari saying the comments of the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo against him were unbecoming of a statesman.

Professor Sagay, in a statement entitled: Obasanjo and the power withdrawal syndrome, urged Obasanjo to let Nigeria be by going “to Owu and rest.”

Sagay’s statement reads in part: “The status of an ex-president is one of quiet dignity, respect, discretion, decorum, discipline and restraint. Obasanjo does not have a single one of these qualities. We have had a number of former Heads of State, namely, Gowon, Shagari, Babangida, Abubakar Salami and Jonathan. All of these former Heads of State have exercised discretion, restraint and self-discipline in relation to their successors, but not Obasanjo.

“Obasanjo’s boisterous, aggressive and hectoring attitude towards succeeding Presidents, strikes me as a case of one who has never recovered from the loss of power. By his meddlesomeness, rude and uncouth attitude towards later Heads of State, it is clear that he is addicted to a substance called power, and is angry and resentful towards any other person exercising it.”

The legal luminary, however, accused Obasanjo of acting like a dictator while in office by illegally removing state governors, declaration of illegal states of emergency, reckless abuse of power and carrying out alleged genocidal slaughter.

Sagay said: “As I stated earlier, Obasanjo believes that he can break all rules and ethics but it is a crime for others to even appear to follow his footsteps in that regard.

“He is a man who is not conscious of a sense of wrong doing and is probably unaware of the long list of depredations trailing his footsteps. The man is not just immoral, he is worse; he is amoral, i.e., he lacks a sense of right or wrong.

“Obasanjo is now an old man. It is now imperative that he learns to exercise some discretion and restraint in his public statements. His bombastic, false, misleading and destructive outbursts are not befitting of a so-called Elder State man; even more less of a former president. Obasanjo, let Nigeria be, go to Owu and rest.”

Also, speaking through the National Coordinator, Yoruba Patriots’ Movement, Chief Oladosu Ladipo, the elders opined that the unsubstantiated allegations against the president have “reduced  Obasanjo’s value both politically and intellectually.”

Oladipo said: “Two things I see, making a U-turn or somersaulting in the broad daylight has reduced his value both politically and intellectually. It has reduced his integrity; reduced all his virtues and has put him as somebody whose words cannot be relied upon and who cannot mentor the up and coming generations. In fact, he is double-mouthed”.

“Two, the history of 1999-2007 is still with some of us; the facts between Obasanjo and Atiku. I mean facts that cannot be debunked. So, I want to leave that aside for now. The other one is that democracy involves propaganda and propaganda involves truth, half-truth, total falsehood and blatant lies. I can describe the things he is saying as total falsehood, mere propaganda. Can a good Statesman make propaganda? Shagari died at the age of 93, did you hear him say anything like this? What he is doing is propaganda for post-election riot, which can be an inducement for the military to take over, and military cannot take over in Nigeria again.”
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Reacting to Tinubu’s chastisement of Obasanjo, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, described it as disrespectful, reckless, unguarded and indecorous.

In a statement by Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organization, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan said: “Tinubu in his tirade against the former President sounded like a disrobed ruler facing a pang of defeat as he watches his empire being legitimately taken.

“It is shocking that Asiwaju of Lagos can be in cahoots with President Muhammadu Buhari, a known anti-democrat, who has always been in league with all known dictators, while at the same time claiming to be on the side of democrats.

It is, however, not a surprise that Tinubu is in severe pain because President Obasanjo exposed their rigging plans.   Asiwaju had always won elections for himself and his cronies through rigging and these accounts for his bitterness.

“His reliance on rigging was typified in the Osun election where results were manipulated in order not to “disgrace” the fading politics of the Asiwaju of Lagos.

“Let it be placed on record that the story of that election has not been fully told by Tinubu in his snide remarks against President Obasanjo. He chose to be silent on that phone call which was clandestinely put across to Abuja, consequent upon which INEC declared an election already won by the PDP, as inconclusive.   Since the matter is in court, we will not join Tinubu in abusing court processes.

“However, PDP states in unequivocal terms that President Obasanjo, contrary to Tinubu’s claims, did not at any time, assure our party that he holds sway throughout the southwest and as such will deliver Osun state to the PDP.

“It is also important to state that the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, did not also claim to have rigged election in the South West. However, if Tinubu today denies his affinity with Atiku Abubakar, which is well known in the entire nation, then he can deny even his own existence.”

“It is ridiculous that Tinubu can attempt to justify the sharing of N10,000 each to traders, in the market by Vice President Yemi Osibanjo. The PDP believes that Asiwaju of Lagos has not read and like President Buhari is also unaware that the same poor people which Osinbajo claimed to be helping with his ‘tradermoni’ voodoo, chased him out of the UTC market in Abuja.

“It is imperative to ask Tinubu if he saw the cartoon making the round, where poor people were depicted thronging around him with paltry N10,000 naira in their hands while he sat on his throne with full chicken in his hands and telling the famished lot that he has nothing to offer them.”

“Nigerians already know that their help is not in the hands of people like Asiwaju of Lagos and President Buhari, who are amassing wealth for themselves and their generations yet unborn, while the people live in squalor.

Since Asiwaju of Lagos understands the reason for collation of PVC numbers in exchange for the N10,000 trader money, he will do the nation good, especially at this time, if he provides explanation for this joint venture outside rigging of elections.

“It is shameful that Tinubu can compare any administration in the history of our nation to the Buhari administration. Nigerians have never been this hungry, our purchasing power has never been this low, our fault lines have never been this manifest and our nation has never been turned into a huge funeral parlor as we have witnessed under President Buhari’s incompetent, divisive and colossally corrupt administration. At no time in our history had Nigerians gone to the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos to take a plunge of death.

“It is therefore strange that Asiwaju of Lagos can have the temerity to accuse anybody of leaving the poor unattended to, when he has been a pretender in the circle of the poor.

“It is unfortunate that Asiwaju of Lagos has forgotten how in 2014/2015, he assembled his team for the election of President Buhari, how he put in everything for Buhari to get elected, and how, as soon as Buhari assumed office, he ostracized him, chastised him before the people he brought and reduced him to one state leader, in spite of his pretentions as the National leader of the APC.

“Nigerians have not forgotten how President Buhari rose in a public function and said Tinubu cannot call himself a saint

Meanwhile the PDP has berated APC over what the party called “needless attack” on ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo over his comment on the last Osun governorship election.

The PDP, in a statement by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said Obasanjo did not say anything new about Osun governorship election, adding that all that transpired, especially during the September 27 Rerun Election was already in public domain.

The statement reads: “The statement by APC and an aide to Ogbeni Aregbesola, in reaction to what our respected former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo said on the last Osun governorship election should not have ordinarily attracted such an outburst from those that stole the collective mandate of Osun people during the last election.

“The world knows APC colluded with INEC to rig the last Osun poll. Reports by election observers exposed all their atrocities. Why the attack on the elder statement that observed Nigeria was heading towards a precipice under the Buhari and cried out?

“We advise APC, President Buhari and INEC to see the warning signs and back down on their plans to rig the general elections as done during Osun governorship poll. We also call for end of attacks on Chief Obasanjo, who has remained the conscience of our nation by the enemies of democracy.”