Obasanjo’s ex-aide, ACN, ANPP flay President over Odi, Zaki Biam, others
MONDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2012 00:00 FROM JOHN-ABBA OGBODO, ADAMU ABUH (ABUJA) AND TUNDE AKINOLA (LAGOS) NEWS - NATIONAL
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COMMENTS by President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday during his presidential chat with journalists elicited sharp criticisms Monday.

An aide of erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) faulted Jonathan’s comments.

The Obasanjo’s former aide condemned Jonathan’s position on the killings of some people in Odi and Zaki Biam in Bayelsa and Benue State in that order during Obasanjo’s tenure while the two political parties said that the President’s comments were full of doublespeak.

In 1999, following the killing of five policemen, Obasanjo deployed troops in Odi in the course of which many civilians were killed and many houses burnt.

During the media chat on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) last Sunday, Jonathan faulted the action of the former president saying that it did not stop the crises.

Obasanjo’s former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, Monday said that the president did not give the correct account of all that happened.

“During a live broadcast of the presidential media chat to the nation on the evening of November 18, 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan said that the military operation in Odi by the Nigerian Armed Forces in 1999, which was ordered by President Olusegun Obasanjo, did not solve the problem or stop the killing of soldiers, policemen and innocent civilians in the Niger Delta area by the terrorists and militants. He also said that all he saw in Odi after he went there on an official visit as Deputy Governor were the dead bodies of old people. With the greatest respect to Mr. President this is factually incorrect. He has either forgotten the relevant facts or he has been misinformed. Whichever way he is mistaken and it is important for those of us that proudly served the Obasanjo administration to respond to him in order to clarify the issues, clear the air and set the record straight for the sake of history and posterity. I had the privilege of being briefed about all the facts by President Olusegun Obasanjo himself and Col. Kayode Are, the former Director General of the State Security Service. Immediately after the Presidential Media Chat and I believe that it is appropriate to share some of those facts with members of the Nigerian public given the grave assertion and serious charge that President Jonathan has made. Those facts are as follows.

“Five policemen and four soldiers were killed by a group of Niger Delta militants when they tried to enter the town of Odi in Bayelsa State in order to effect their arrest. This happened in 1999. After the brutal killing of these security personnel President Olusegun Obasanjo asked the then Governor of Bayelsa State, Governor Alamieyeseigha, to identify, locate, apprehend and hand over the perpetrators of that crime. The governor said that he was unable to do so and President Obasanjo, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, took the position that security personnel could not be killed with impunity under his watch without a strong and appropriate response from the Federal Government.

Consequently, he sent the military in to uproot and kill the terrorists and to destroy their operational base, which was the town of Odi. The operation was carried out with military precision and efficiency and its objectives were fully achieved. The terrorists were either killed and those that were not killed fled their operational base in Odi, were uprooted, were weakened, were demoralised and were completely dispersed. That was the purpose of the whole exercise and that purpose was achieved. The truth is that the killing of security agents and soldiers with impunity by the Niger Delta militants virtually stopped after the operation in Odi and remained at a bare minimum right up until the time that President Obasanjo left power eight years later in 2007. I advise those that doubt this to go and check the records,” he said.

Fani-Kayode continued: “The same thing was done in Zaki Biam in Benue State in the north-central zone of Nigeria in 2001 after 19 soldiers were murdered in cold blood and then brutally beheaded by some terrorists from that area. Again after the Federal Government’s strong military response in Zaki Biam the killing of security personnel with impunity stopped. The objectives of the military operations in both Odi and Zaki Biam were to stop such killings, to eliminate and deal a fatal blow to those that perpetrated them and to discourage those that may seek to carry out such barbarous butchery and mindless violence in the future. Those were the objectives and nothing more and clearly those objectives were achieved.

“There is no doubt that after Odi there was still unrest, agitations, protests, kidnappings and the blowing up and sabotage of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta area but there were hardly any more attacks on or killing of soldiers and security personnel by the terrorists and militants because they knew that to do that would attract a swift and forceful reaction and terrible retribution from the Nigerian military. To stop and deter those attacks and killings was the objective of President Obasanjo and that objective was achieved.

“President Goodluck Jonathan was therefore in error when he said that Odi did not solve the problem of killings in the Niger Delta area by the Niger Delta militants. Not only did it stop the killings but it is also an eloquent testimony of how to deal with terrorists, how to handle those that kill our security personnel with impunity and how to deter militants from killing members of our civilian population and thinking that they can get away with it. If President Obasanjo had not taken that strong action at that time many more of our civilian population and security personnel would have been killed by the Niger Delta militants between 1999 and 2007. By doing what he did at Odi and Zaki Biam President Obasanjo saved the lives of many and put a stop to the killings and terrorism that had taken root in the Niger Delta area previous to that time.”

The former aide also described as unfortunate the reactions of Nigerians to Obasanjo’s position on the activities of Boko Haram. He said: “On the issue of Boko Haram it is unfortunate that President Obasanjo’s comments have been misconstrued and his views misrepresented. He never said that the Odi treatment should be applied to Boko Haram or that such action is appropriate in these circumstances. What he said was that a solution ought to have been found or some sort of action ought to have been taken sooner rather than allow the problem to fester over time like a bad wound and get worse. There can be no doubt that he was right on this because, according to President Jonathan’s own Chief of Army Staff, no less that 3,000 people have been killed by Boko Haram in the last two years alone. That figure represents approximately the same number of people that were killed by the IRA in Northern Ireland and the British mainland in the 100 years that the war between them and British lasted and before peace was achieved between the two sides. The same number of casualties that the IRA inflicted on the people of the United Kingdom in 100 years is the same number of casualties that Boko Haram have managed to inflict on our people in just two. This is unacceptable and it is very disturbing.

The Federal Government must cultivate the courage and the political will to stop the killings by Boko Haram and to find a permanent solution to the problem. When President Obasanjo was in power he handled such matters decisively, with vigour and with the utmost urgency. He brought justice to the perpetrators quickly and promptly and he did whatever he had to do to protect the lives and property of the Nigerian people. The truth is that the strategy that he adopted to fight terrorism and mass murder worked very well and it was very effective. For President Goodluck Jonathan to suggest otherwise is regrettable,” Fani-Kayode said.

On their part, the ACN and the ANPP yesterday said that the chat indicated that the PDP-led administration had no solution to the country’s many problems

The ACN expressed serious concerns over conflicting statements emanating from Jonathan and his spokespersons, saying what had now emerged as a credibility deficiency syndrome afflicting the presidency raised questions over who indeed was in charge.

In a statement issued in Abeokuta yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the ACN said the concerns arose because of the frequency with which the President contradicted those he appointed as spokespersons, and in view of the fact that the credibility of his Administration was at stake.

“Credibility is a key issue in governance, and lack of it renders a government impotent. Perhaps this worsening credibility gap in the Jonathan Administration is one of the reasons that it had so far failed to perform to expectation,” it said.

The ACN said Jonathan on Sunday, during his media chat denied that his government had revoked the power contract awarded to Canadian firm, Manitoba, even though his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, had been widely quoted as saying - unequivocally - that the President had cancelled the contract.

Also, the party said while the same Abati had been widely quoted as saying, in August and this month, that the government was engaged in ‘’backroom channel’’ talks with Boko Haram, Jonathan was categorical in saying, during the media chat, that there was no dialogue with the group because there had yet been no face to it.

According to the ACN, it is also instructive that Jonathan has finally confirmed the reported illness of the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, even when the spokespersons for the President and the First Lady said she was hale and hearty, and implied she was vacationing abroad, even as reports circulated that she was being treated for an illness in Germany.

In a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the party, Emma Eneukwu, the ANPP lamented Jonathan’s responses to some of the questions posed to him on the occasion.

The ANPP said: “For starters, when asked about the on-going constitution amendment, the President declined to take any position on the myriad of issues being raised for amendment in the constitution, with the self-serving explanation that it would be in the best interest of Nigerians to suggest areas in the constitution to be amended. However, we believe that it is the sign of a leader with ideas and direction to have a clear-cut legislative agenda, as a signature of his policy philosophy.”

“Secondly, when he was reminded about his campaign promise of reducing poverty, President Jonathan quickly charged in to tell Nigerians that he never promised to reduce poverty, but rather told the populace when he was campaigning for their votes that he wanted to ‘create wealth.’

“This is a clear political equivocation which is patently illiterate at best and self-indicting at worst. Nigerians are now left to wonder who Mr. President had set out to empower all along. This is because, for sure, creating wealth might actually be a metaphor for putting more money into the hands of his already rich party members and cronies, while leaving the poor of the nation in the hands of chance,” he added.