by Oge Okonkwo

A  report by Premium Times has stated that ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo wrote an 18-paged letter to  President Goodluck Jonathan accusing him of failing Nigerians in his position as the President of the country.

The Premium Times said the content of the letter explained why Obasanjo was angry and frustrated with the position of the country under the leadership of President Jonathan.

Read the 10 things we got from the letter below:

1. Obasanjo claimed he was told by President Jonathan he will spend only a single term.

“Up till two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that statement you made to me judging by what is going on. I must say it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more honorable path.”

2. The broken promises by President Jonathan casts him as a man without honor.

 Obasanjo said it was  “fatally morally flawed” for Mr. Jonathan to contest in 2015, Mr. Obasanjo added, “As a leader, two things you must cherish and hold dear among others are trust and honour both of which are important ingredients of character. I will want to see anyone in the Office of the Presidency of Nigeria as a man or woman who can be trusted, a person of honour in his words and character.”

3. Bamanga Tukur is just the ‘sacrificial lamb’ in the ongoing PDP crisis threatening to tear the party apart and President Jonathan is solely responsible for PDP’s troubles.

Obasanjo said apart from using party chairman Bamanga Tukur to cause multiple crises and divide the ranks of the party, the president’s failure to keep a promise he made not to seek a second term is also generating tension within the ruling party.

“It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman (Tukur) for all that goes wrong with the party,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “The chairman is playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). But the paymaster is acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem to be the major ingredients.

4. According to Obasanjo, President Jonathan has been found guilty of ‘misplaced allegiance’ towards PDP.

…supporting opposition parties’ candidates in governorship elections in Lagos, Ondo, Edo and Anambra states at the detriment of PDP’s own candidates –, and of pitting party members against one another, the ex-president said.

5. Obasanjo accused President of not tackling the Boko Haram menace head on, advising Jonathan on ways to handle this security problem.

 Mr. Obasanjo urged Mr. Jonathan to adopt a carrot and stick approach in dealing with the insurgency explaining that “conventional military actions based on standard phases of military operations alone will not permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko Haram”.

6. From the opinions of Obasanjo, President Jonathan is all about his own Ijaw tribe.

“For you to allow yourself to be “possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of Nigerians as an “Ijaw man” is a mistake that should never have been allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be Nigerian if not naturalized but the Nigerian President must be above ethnic factionalism. And those who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’ are not your friends genuinely, not friends of Nigeria nor friends of ‘Ijaw nation’ they tout about.

“To allow or tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other Nigerians from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect your interest as an Ijaw man is myopic and your not openly quieting them is even more unfortunate.

Two Ijaw men, ex-militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and a former federal commissioner for information,    Edwin Clark, who carries himself around as the political godfather of the president, are known to talk down on people opposed to the president.

7. President Jonathan is allegedly training snipers and placing over 1000 Nigerians on political watch list.

Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of placing over 1000 Nigerians on political watch list and “training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha and training them where Abacha trained his killers”.

8. The presidency is assisting a  murderer to evade justice. The angry ex-president wrote:

 “Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally but particularly to the family of his victim,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as it is viewed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch.”

9. Obasanjo called on  the National Assembly to take quick action on the recent allegation in the country  that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit billions of dollars in proceeds of crude oil sales to the federation account.

He wrote: “This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo told the President. “Please deal with this allegation transparently and let the truth be known.

“The dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will one day be public knowledge. Those who know are watching if the National Assembly will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand corruption. May God grant you the grace for at least one effective corrective action against high corruption which seems to stink all around you in your government.”

10. The ex-president is prepared for any criticisms his letter to the presidency and even prepared to ‘give his life’ to fight a cause.

Knowing what happens around you most of which you know of and condone or deny, this letter will proke cacophony from hired and unhired attackers but I will maintain my serenity because by this letter, I have done my duty to you as I have always done, to your government, to the party, PDP, and to our country, Nigeria…,” Mr. Obasanjo said.

“I have passed the stage of being flattered, intimidated, threatened, frightened, induced or bought… Death is the end of all human beings and may it come when God wills it to come.”

Well, that is summary