FINALLY: Jonathan replies Obasanjo through proxy

In what appears as an indirect response by President Goodluck Jonathan to the letter written him by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a pro-Jonathan politician, Senator Ameh Ebute, Saturday, blasted Obasanjo for daring to castigate Jonathan for the nation’s woes.

The former senator accused Obasanjo of instituting unprecedented corruption in Nigeria and trying desperately to illegally extend his tenure for selfish reasons, thereby lacking the credibility to accuse Jonathan of any wrongdoing.

Ebute, a one-time Senate President of Nigeria, responded in an 18-pages letter  to the letter

fired by Obasanjo to Jonathan, in which he accused the president of failing the nation in several ways and committing blunders that threaten to destroy the country.

The politician, who did not say whether he was authorised by the Jonathan or not, however, wrote as if he was a spokesman for the Presidency, blaming Obasanjo for the current problems in Nigeria, which Jonathan was battling to resolve.

Ebute noted, “As an obsessed letter writer, Chief Obasanjo may unwittingly view his tirades against sitting governments as building a legacy to be celebrated when he departs; he does not see the effects of debasement, deformation, destruction, disunity, hatred and defamation in his actions.

“Selfless leaders with character build peace, build harmony, build unity and build love. However, it appears our erstwhile President has lost it all. Like what Billy Graham said, “When character is lost, all is lost”.

He said that Obasanjo had no moral grounds to accuse Jonathan of destroying the People’s Democratic Party, having himself been responsible for the crisis currently rocking the party.

According to the politician, it was Obasanjo, who planted the seed of discord that is threatening the party and not Jonathan.
“It is ridiculous that Chief Obasanjo, a self-acclaimed democrat, should accuse President Goodluck Jonathan as the one responsible for the lingering crisis in PDP, which pre-dated his emergence as the leader of the party”, Ebute said.

” President Jonathan’s alleged crime is his refusal to publicly denounce those craving his return in 2015. Chief Obasanjo further accused President Jonathan of clandestinely dictating the actions of the party Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. These unsubstantiated claims posit a curious but intriguing parallel and calls for self-examination on the part of the Owu Chief.

When in 2002, before INEC officially signaled political activities for the 2003 elections, posters and propaganda materials adorned all nooks and crannies of Nigeria for Chief Obasanjo’s re-election, how many of such people did he publicly denounce?

” Even when it became open knowledge in 2005 that Chief Obasanjo surreptitiously attempted to use his cronies to insert in the output of the National Political Reform Conference a clause to elongate his tenure for a third term, since he thought it was only he who had the single inalienable right to rule Nigeria for life, did hereunder any public denial?

“Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has no moral credentials to accuse President Jonathan of responsibility for the travails of the PDP. These crises, as earlier noted, predate the incumbent leader of the party.”