Monday, August 25, 2008 Printer Friendly Version

[size=15pt]Yar’Adua, Obasanjo not on speaking terms[/size] – Investigation

By Musikilu Mojeed

There were strong indications on Sunday that the relationship between President Umaru Yar’Adua and his predecessor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, may no longer be cordial. The two men are no longer on speaking terms.










Reliable sources close to the two leaders disclosed to our correspondent that Yar’Adua and Obasanjo were bickering seriously and had not spoken to each other in the last couple of months.

A former aide of the ex-presidents who informed our correspondent of the development, said Obasanjo decided to stay away from the President after he began to experience “consistent difficulty” in getting unhindered access to him.

The source, a presidential aide during the last administration, quoted the former President as having told him that he (Obasanjo) was now keeping Yar’Adua at arm’s length.

The source said, “I went to visit Baba (the former president) at his Ota farm house that day to solicit his assistance to help talk to President Yar’Adua to get me a job. Since Baba left office, some of us who were his former aides and worked hard for Yar’Adua’s election are yet to be appointed to positions in government.

“So, I went to Ota to plead with Baba to help us talk to the President to consider us. But Baba’s response to my request shocked me. He said I should leave him out of anything that has to do with Yar’Adua. He said the relationship between him and the President was over and that he was not even on speaking terms with the President.

“When I asked him the reason for the stand-off with a man he helped install as president, Baba said he was not in the mood to talk about the wrongs that Yar’Adua had done to him. I left Ota in disappointment.”

Another source, who is Obasanjo’s close political associate, also confirmed that the cosy relationship between Yar’Adua and his predecessor had fizzled out.

He said, “Some of us are aware that all is not well between Baba and the President and we have been trying to see what can be done to reconcile them.

“As you know, I am close to the two of them and I will do my best to bring them together again. What is happening between them is unfortunate and is definitely not in the interest of our party.”

Presidency sources also confirmed the simmering hostility between the President and Obasanjo.

The sources said Yar’Adua hardly responded to the former President’s calls until Obasanjo allegedly stopped calling him altogether.

An Aso Rock source said the President had to call Obasanjo’s bluff after it became clear in the early days of the administration that the ex-President was bent on controlling him.

The source added that Yar’Adua did not see Obasanjo as his political godfather.

The source added, “When we first came in, Obasanjo was always pestering the President, telling him what to and what not to do. It became clear that he wanted to continue to rule from the backdoor.

“Of course, that did not go down well with Turai (Yar’Adua’s wife) and some forces within the administration who moved quickly to checkmate Obasanjo and whittle down his influence in the Presidential Villa.”

One of the fallouts of the disagreement between the two men, our sources said, was last Monday’s scrap of the Chief of Staff post in The Presidency and the sack of the acting Chief of Staff, Dr. Gbolade Osinowo, and the other staff in his office.

Osinowo and his colleagues were presidential aides who served Obasanjo and were retained by Yar’Adua.

Our source said they were sacked because they were regarded as moles in the Presidential Villa who had been feeding Obasanjo with information on “classified developments” in The Presidency.

Investigations also indicated that the former president had of recent been boycotting many party functions in anger.

Obasanjo reportedly stayed away from the meetings of the national caucus and the national executive committee meetings, of the Peoples Democratic Party, the two powerful party organs to which he and Yar’Adua are leading members.

An associate of the former President quoted Obasanjo as having complained bitterly that he felt betrayed with the way the Yar’Adua administration was reversing the policies introduced by his (Obasanjo’s) regime.

He was also said to have expressed disappointment that the President failed to halt both the ongoing probe of his administration by some committees in the National Assembly and the plot to amend the PDP’s constitution as a way of dethroning him as the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees.

Also said to have angered Obasanjo was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s recent incarceration of his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, and some of his close associates for corruption. It was learnt that Obasanjo was shocked that Yar’Adua did not intervene in the matter.

According to a source, Obasanjo feels that the probe and the incarceration of his associates are meant to rubbish all that he did for the country during his eight-year reign.

But the national leadership of the PDP said it was not aware that Yar’Adua and his predecessor were bickering.

The National Legal Adviser of the party, Chief Olusola Oke, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone, said though there had been speculations that the two leaders were quarrelling; there had been no concrete evidence to support the insinuations.

He said some people had pointed at Obasanjo’s conspicuous absence from the two party functions (the meetings of the PDP national caucus and the NEC) as an indication that he was no longer at ease with the President and the party.

Oke said, “But even that is not enough evidence to say that all is not well between our two leaders. Though former President Obasanjo was not at those meetings, he sent apologies.

“There is nothing from our end to suggest that anything is amiss between the President and his predecessor. As far as we are concerned, there is no way the two leaders won’t talk.

“People should remember that Baba is a very close friend of the President’s late brother and there is no doubt that the President will continue to regard former President Obasanjo the way he did to his brother.”

An official of the party, who did not want to be named, however, confirmed the development, saying the party was finding a way to reconcile the two men.

Both Obasanjo and Yar‘Adua could not be reached for comments on Sunday. Several calls made to the former President indicated that his mobile phone was switched off.

The calls made to the mobile phone of Yar‘Adua‘s Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, were not picked.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/aug/25/499.html

OBJ and Yardua face-off is good for Nigeria.

If this story is true,then Obj must b a fool for thinking he can control a fellow man for too long.Did Obj agree to be controlled when he was president?tsk!he has lost his identity,he should go find a place & shut up!

shut up.

The lesson? Well the lesson should be that there is no good test to evaluate the loyality of another human being once you give him power. Ask Nnamani in Enugu, Tinubu in Lagos, and a whole lot of poor students of human psychology out there. If OBJ had handed over to someone who deserved it, his lot would have been better, but primitive African way of thinking could not allow him reason rationally when he had the opportunity.

The source added, “When we first came in, Obasanjo was always pestering the President, telling him what to and what not to do. It became clear that he wanted to continue to rule from the backdoor.

huh duh, did u think the campaign money and political backing were for charity?

Not a big deal at all; both men have nothing in common.

You can play some people sometime, but you can not play everybody everytime.
I think someone has played himself big time!

Yar’adua, Obasanjo Not On Speaking Terms

They are both stupid. . . . .Silly. . . .Foolish. . . . .Uncultured. . . . . and Irresponsible.
What a bunch of losers!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yaradua is a brainless fungus ,obj is an ignoramus
so what difference does it make

Una too dey do aproko for this forum.

It's a welcome development cos the name OBJ signifies failure. And i believe Yaradua is beginning to get that.