Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has raised alarm about the postponement of presidential elections and has publicly endorsed former head of state
Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign to unseat
President Goodluck Jonathan. Gen Obasanjo was in Nairobi to launch a
1,500-page autobiography highly critical
of Jonathan, a former protégé whose
ascent to the presidency he helped to
engineer. The book has been banned in Nigeria pending libel hearings brought by an ally of the president. “The signs are not auspicious” in the wake
of the six-week postponement of the
general election, said Gen Obasanjo, who
remains an influential, if contentious,
figure at home. “I don’t know whether a
script is being played,” the Financial Times of London reported. Coming from a founding member of the
ruling People’s Democratic Party, his
public endorsement of the main
opposition challenger underscores the
extent to which Jonathan has lost backing
from sections of the establishment, FT said. Nigerians were due to go to the polls this
Saturday, with the campaign of Gen
Buhari gathering steam in what was
expected to be the country’s closest
electoral contest since the restoration of
civilian rule in 1999. But the Independent National Electoral
Commission last weekend postponed the
vote until March 28 after security chiefs
said they could not safeguard the polls
while launching a regional military
campaign to reclaim territory from Islamist extremists. The delay should also enable biometric
voter cards to be distributed to the
millions of voters who have yet to receive
them and who were at risk of being
disenfranchised. This is the first time Gen Obasanjo has
come out openly to support Gen Buhari,
72, who ruled Nigeria briefly in the 1980s
after taking power in a coup and has tried
three times since to win the presidency,
including once against Gen Obasanjo. “The circumstances [Buhari] will be
working under if he wins the election are
different from the one he worked under
before, where he was both the executive
and the legislature — he knows that,” said
Gen Obasanjo. “He’s smart enough. He’s educated enough. He’s experienced
enough. Why shouldn’t I support him?” He also believes Gen Buhari would be well
equipped to combat corruption and
restore fighting spirit to an army that has
struggled in the face of the onslaught by Boko Haram, which has seized a swath of territory in the northeast. “It’s a question of leadership — political
and military,” Gen Obasanjo said of the
crisis facing the army. “I think you need
to ask [Jonathan] how has he let [the
army] go to this extent . . . Many things
went wrong: recruitment went wrong; training went wrong; morale went down;
motivation not there; corruption was
deeply ingrained; welfare was bad.” The former leader also expressed dismay
at the extent to which billions of dollars in
oil revenues had “all disappeared” since
he left office, when reserves had reached
$45bn and the government had $20bn
more in rainy day savings. Nigeria’s economy, Africa’s largest, has
taken a battering since last year with the
plunge in oil prices. Speaking ironically of
the negative impact of this on
government reserves, Gen Obasanjo
added: “There’ll be less in the pot, for stealing or corruption.” However, the hold-up has raised fears among civil society and opposition
activists that the government might seek
to use security concerns as a pretext to
extend its mandate beyond a four-year
term that ends on May 29, and risk
plunging the country back into the hands of the military rather than tempt fate at
the polls. Jonathan and the army have publicly
pledged to abide by the constitution. Gen
Obasanjo said in an interview: “I sincerely
hope that the president is not going for
broke and saying ‘look dammit, it’s either
I have it or nobody has it’. I hope that we will not have a coup . . . I hope we can
avoid it.” Gen Obasanjo, the military ruler in the late
1970s, returned to power as elected
president between 1999 and 2007 after his
release from prison where he was held as
a political prisoner by Sani Abacha, the
penultimate and most brutal of Nigeria’s military dictators. He was instrumental in Jonathan’s ascent
from state governor to the presidency. But
relations between the two men have
soured since he chose Jonathan as a vice-
presidential candidate in 2007 and backed
him as president when Umaru Yar’Adua, the incumbent, died in office three years
later. Gen Obasanjo, 77, continues to play an
active international role but says he has
no ambition to return to the political
centre stage. “I am an old man and I’m
enjoying what I’m doing now . . . And then
you forget I am a farmer; I have to manage my farm.”

source:

www.dailytrust.com.ng/daily/top-stories/46725-obasanjo-why-i-am-supporting-buhari

How can ya expect an old man dat wants to remain relevant in naija politics till he dies support a vibrant youth leader in d person of jona? An old cow will support an hold cow, buh a vibrant young youth will pick jona anytime any day. Obj as I always say has signed his political death warrant.

OK OOOO

Let whoever wins take his rightful position in Aso Rock. Whatever be the case do not help to heat up the polity. This politicians we always clamour for dont have our interest at heart. When the violence start, they and their children will flee to fortification while the military men will be wasting the lives of Nigerians. Recall the Nigerian civil war, the principal actors lived to ripe age. Gowon is almost 80 and Ojukwu died at the ripe age of 78 leaving inheritance for his children but do not forget that 3 million people lost their lives on both sides. Their death was in vain as the politicians reconcilled and many are now great friends and they are still ruling us. Let us be wise, vote for your candidate and move on. We have never voted anyone that will please us for even a term, before the tenure ends we will start screaming and shouting for another. Politicians are not your messiah. We are the ones to drop our selfishness, materialism, hatred, insensitivity and wickedness towards another. Our division is greatly helping their own agenda. As long as we are divided we will always be at the loosing end. What they owe us is infrastructures, security and proper resource control. It is not theirs to help us define our heritage, an Hausa man is not better than all the other 250 tribes and vice versa. We are first human before we recognise any tribe or nation what we owe each other is love. We are not different in anyway except our mindset. It is not theirs to help us discover religion, it is supposed to be between us and our God. Religion is a personal thing, as long as it works for us. God is the judge not us or them. Please keep yourselves safe, you too can rule one day.

Life is so sweet and short to waste it reading shit!

All i know is that the have use jazz collect baba senses.

Can his endorsement guarantee pa buhari victory Two old fools deceiving themselves! GEJ till 2019!!!

OBJ Support for GMB is simply out of FRUSTRATION, Period!!!

this would explain why he
[Obasanjo] didn’t turn up for the Council of
State meeting. The Judas Obasanjo couldn’t
face the President and tell the President to
his face that he is switching his support to
Buhari. What a coward Obasanjo is.
This is the highest form of betrayal. Betrayal
of a party that made him and supported him
throughout his presidency.
It is one thing turning your back against your
party but unforgivable to support your
party’s opposition. This is like plotting to
murder your own parents. Shame on
Obasanjo. History will judge him even more
harshly now.

OREMUSSANCTUS:
How can ya expect an old man dat wants to remain relevant in naija politics till he dies support a vibrant youth leader in d person of jona? An old cow will support an hold cow, buh a vibrant young youth will pick jona anytime any day. Obj as I always say has signed his political death warrant.

That's nt d point bro, he doesn't want to be left behind in GMB kingdom