WHY EX-PRESIDENT OBASANJO WANT PRESIDENT JONATHAN OUT OF OFFICE

It all came to a head, penultimate week, with an open letter to Jonathan by Obasanjo – the animosity between. The problems confronting Nigeria today go beyond the visceral outburst of two leaders.

IN THE BEGINNING

That Sunday evening after the presidential contest of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, then President Olusegun Obasanjo summoned Goodluck Jonathan to Aso Rock Presidential Villa.   It was to inform him of his choice as running mate to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the party’s candidate who emerged earlier in the morning.   Jonathan did not see it coming.   Just before the contest, Obasanjo had invited Rivers governor, Dr. Peter Odili, to the Villa for breakfast and morning prayers.

After the prayers, Obasanjo compelled Odili to drop his presidential ambition insisting he pays a visit to Yar’Adua.   Odili obliged.   At Eagle Square where the contest held, the initial arrangement was that Odili would be picked as running mate to Yar’Adua whose path had been cleared by Obasanjo – it needs mentioning here that all these, after bruising heads and breaking limbs in the process. But Odili again became a victim of highwire, dirty manipulation

Therefore, that evening when Obasanjo summoned Jonathan, it was to inform him that he would be the running mate to Yar’Adua. Mind you, Obasanjo had, in mid-February 1999, defied his party by unilaterally picking Atiku Abubakar as his own running mate while consultations were still on.   Therefore, picking Jonathan was not new.

What was, however, new, was that Obasanjo wanted Jonathan to be a ‘Yes Man’.
Revelations since after the ailment of Yar’Adua got worse in 2009 and, which led to his death, suggest that Obasanjo foresaw a situation whereby Jonathan would finish the tenure of Yar’Adua, contrary to Obasanjo’s repeated denial that he deliberately foisted an ‘invalid on the nation as president’.

For Jonathan, who, initially in the third quarter of 2005, neither believed that he would become Bayelsa State governor, nor, in January 2007, conceived of the possibility of becoming Nigeria’s vice president and then president, he still appears overwhelmed by the reality of leading a very complex and complicated country like Nigeria. Between the two leaders, something gave in at some point.

OBASANJO’S PLOT

Sunday Vanguard had reported in March that Obasanjo was already reviving up his campaign against Jonathan’s second term bid by holding series of meetings with some northern leaders.
What  we  can report now is that whereas Obasanjo had privately attempted to dissuade Jonathan from seeking a second term, his open letter of penultimate week was meant to demonstrate to a section of Nigeria that since private discussions were not yielding results, a frontal attack would jolt the Presidency.
It did. Jonathan has since responded.   There have been mixed reactions to the tone and language of the response from the presidency. Consultations are on-going regarding the agenda to ensure that Jonathan does not secure a second term.

President Goodluck Jonathan and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo

But Obasanjo’s manipulative involvement in the political ascendancy of Jonathan should not become a magna charter for the former to engage in malicious and demagogic domination of the latter’s political space. Therefore, rather than create unnecessary heat for the system and in the system, those opposed to Jonathan’s second term should simply mobilize Nigerians and ensure that they vote massively against him. That way, the votes of Nigerians would determine who would be elected president in 2015.
The open letter from Obasanjo is just one in a series of plots. The visit, penultimate Saturday, of the leadership of the APC to Obasanjo’s Abeokuta residence was another. The former president is also said to be intensifying his consultations with political and religious leaders in the country.

The big question is do Nigerians want president Jonathan to be a "YES MAN" to ex-president Obasanjo or be the president we all elected?
THE HARM JONATHAN SECOND TERM WILL DO TO OBASANJO

Jonathan second term will rubbish all the achievements of Obasanjo. Nigerians have not witnessed any meaningful action taken by our government since independent. Obasanjo came to power wrote his name in gold by privatizing the telecommunication section, thereby distroying the corruption going on then through NITEL. This achievenmet made Nigerians love this man. A better performer has come Nigerians love scale has tilted.

Jonathan took on fuel subsidy; killed it. Our leaders lost all stakes in the wind fall of subsidy  Has just privatised our power sector. Another lose to our leaders who have milk Nigerians dry through NEPA and PHCN. He is formalizing the privatization of our refinaries which mean end of fuel importation. A business deal gone bad for our ex-leaders who have refinaries outside Nigeria and those who have turned Nigerians to cash cow through this means. Massive employment for Nigerians. The revival of our railway cooperation just to mention but a few. Then Jonathan will enter into history as the longest serving democratic president to ever preside over the largest black nation in the world. An achievement Obasanjo fought for in his third term bid even against the constitution of our dear nation. Obasanjo can really do anything to cling to power; do or die affair.