Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo who virtually nominated his ailing successor, Umaru Yar’adua, and imposed him on his party and Nigeria, today asked him to toe the path of honour and morality.

Obasanjo clearly avoided the ‘R’ word, but his listeners filled the gap for him, that he meant that Yar’Adua should go now, by resigning.

Obasanjo was prodded at a public event in Abuja, which he chaired today. It was at the 7th Annual Lecture of the Media Trust Newspaper Group. And it was the first public comment by Obasanjo on Yar’adua since the ailing

Asked why he imposed Yar’Adua on Nigerians, well aware of his health problem, Obasanjo said he asked for Yar’Adua’s medical record in 2006. According to him, the ailing leader showed him medical records that showed that even though he was on dialysis as a kidney patient before, he Yar’Adua was no more on dialysis.

‘’I gave the report to medical experts who also confirmed that he was fit since he was no longer under dialysis’’.   Obasanjo explained that he requested for Yar’Adua’s medic history because he was aware that the former Katsina Governor spent six months in Nigeria tendering to his kidney problem.

He  dismissed suggestions that he deliberately picked  Yar’adua  as his successor because he knew he would not perform.

http://thepmnews.com/2010/01/21/resign-now-obj-tells-yaradua-protest-in-lagos

OBY!!!. ITS OBVIOUS OBY IS REALLY DELUDED. PSYCHOSIS, not really his fault. shameless hypocrite

Obj should 1st kill himself.

@OBJ

There is no way you can exonerate yourself from this sir!!

I hope you are ready for the return fire that willl be flying from Yar Adua defenders.

Below is the unedited response Obasanjo made to his questioner this morning:
“When in year 2006, the idea came up as to succession; I was convinced in my mind that a Southerner succeeding me will not augur well for Nigeria. You may agree with that, you may not agree. I was convinced in my mind. Now, was looking for those who will succeed me who has three important qualities. One, he has enough intellectual capacity to run the affairs of Nigeria.


Two, he has sufficient personal integrity to run the affairs of Nigeria. Three, he is sufficiently broad minded enough-politically, religiously, socially, whatever to manage the affairs of Nigeria. These three were the important things. Then Umoru Yar’Adua who is now the President, I know he has kidney problem and was under dialysis. Sometimes earlier, he has gone abroad when he was still the Governor of Katsina State.


When the idea was for him to contest, I asked him and he gave me a medical report. The medical report shows that he has come off dialysis. I asked experts who then told me that if you were under dialysis or you were on dialysis and you are no longer under dialysis, it means you have had a successful kidney transplant and that you can live for as long as God may give you favour. Now, who am I and who are you not to accept that? That was the situation.


Now, Mallam Musa Yar’Adua went campaigning and we campaigned together. I remember at one day of the campaign, he was run down. Chairman of our party then, Ahmadu Ali was also run down. Ahmadu Ali didn’t go abroad to check up, but he went abroad to check up and the rumour was that he was dead. And I called him and I put the telephone on speaker and I said, Are you dead? And we continued with the campaign.



To the best of my knowledge, he wasn’t on dialysis after that. When the issue of dialysis came, he was well into his first term (as president) which must maybe the kidney transplant is failing, if it hasn’t failed. That you cannot blame on me. You cannot even blame it on him. So, to say that I, Olusegun Obasanjo deliberately see somebody who is an invalid and, is highly, highly ungrateful, how can I put so much into this country both in peace and in war and I will begin to run it down. If you have fear of God, you will not make that statement.


On the way out of the constitutional crisis, what I needed to say on that, I have said as the Chairman of my Board of Trustees last week. I won’t say anything more. What I need to say is that nobody picked Yar’Adua so that he will not perform. If I did that, God will punish me. There is no reason why I should do that. Again, if you take up an assignment, a job-elected, appointed whatever it is, and then your heath start to fail and you will not be able to deliver to satisfy yourself and to satisfy the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and the path of morality. There is path of honour and the path of morality and if you don’t do that, then you don’t know anything.”



http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/4897-obj-ask-yaradua-to-resign.html

Once again OBJ has spoken like a General.

Yar'adua is a 55year old man who should know when to accept things or not. OBJ did what he thought was right for the country at the time, you can question whether his judgement was right at the time or not but what you can't deny him is the right to comment on the present issue.

He has spoken and has spoken like a General. He has not denied his actions but it takes a strong man to comment openly on a serious National issue like this.

When Gowon had opportunity to do same he cowed and asked the rest of the country to keep praying. That is not the mark of a General and a strong leader. Well Gowon was never a strong leader.

Loyalty is to country and constitution not to men.

Everybody makes mistakes but your ability to self-correct is what makes you stand out. I think OBJ has honestly spoken his mind.
OBJ has spoken well regardless of what you think of the man.

Obasanjo did what he thought was right, but his decision was a blow to Nigeria's future.

Like YarAdua, he is a good man at heart, trying to balance the cabals who are constantly vying for power in the background.

A 2nd Southenern president would have resulted in social unrest.

I don't mind Northeners running Nigeria, if they were competent.

Obasanjo DOES NOT love Nigeria! If anybody wants to debate this matter, let us begin. And please come up with good evidence

hmmmn, at least some people are thinking correctly

Was Yar'Adua d only person from the north with those "QUALIFICATIONS"? He who fetches ant-infested firewood should not be suprized when the lizards comes to visit.

Str8talk:

Obasanjo DOES NOT love Nigeria! If anybody wants to debate this matter, let us begin. And please come up with good evidence

I don't think we can fairly debate whether OBJ loves Nigeria or not, because love is intangible, can't be seen and can not be measured.

But what we can do is to debate whether overtime overall, has OBJ taken actions in the best interest of Nigeria and to that I will say yes he has.

A man who as a Soldier was at the vanguard of negotiations that led to the end of the civil war, A man as Military head of State oversaw the first transfer of Power from Military to Civilian, a man who as civilian President took a lot of tough decisions to pay-off our international debts, left a huge reserve at the time he was handing over, pursued a lot of progressive policies can not be described as an enemy of state.

A lot has been made lately of the third term issue. But the truth is that if OBJ was ready to take down the country if he does not get his wish all he needed to do was to dissolve the National Assembly. He did not do that. He tried to change the constitution to continue in office, the method in which he tried to change the constitution was recognised in law and provided for in the existing constitution.
When his attempt failed he accepted the decision of the National Assembly and handed over power.

Non of what happened at the time was alien to the constitution because even the constitution itself has provissions on how a sitting President can change the constitution to remain in office. The attempt to change the constitution while politically incorrect and maybe immoral depending on what you believe . . . . . . . it is in no way illegal.

So in my book OBJ is a great man who the good things he has done for Nigeria outweighs the bad.

Am speechless!.

Its obvious he wants Nigerians to remember him as forerunner who performed better than the jesus saviour

OBY should keep his mouth shut.

Such high-handedness. Why did you OBJ not allow the Nigerian people to decide who governs them. Your contribution should have been just one vote. Yet you have the audacity to go public to declare that you were looking for a person with certain qualities. OBJ, get ready things must certainly change. I do not believe in this perfidy should continue.

This man is the biggest problem of Nigeria.

So, it wasn't PDP that selected Umoru, it was OBJ! He alone also imposed him on Nigerians!

In 2006, OBJ thought it wasn't a good idea to hand over to a southerner. Where is his claim to statesmanship if leadership is about where you come from, not your ability to deliver? The same idea he had in 1976 when he handed over to Sheu Shagari, a grade II teacher, in a country of intellectuals!

, One, he has enough intellectual capacity to run the affairs of Nigeria. Two, he has sufficient personal integrity to run the affairs of Nigeria. Three, he is sufficiently broad minded enough-politically, religiously, socially, whatever to manage the affairs of Nigeria. These three were the important things.



Though the best thing would have been a free and fair election not a do or die election, but even going by all the criteria listed Umoru does not fit any of them by anyone's stretch of imagination. Fact is there are other criteria used in selecting Yaradua that Obasanjo is not telling us. The ruling cabal and Obasanjo are feeling threatened right now, and they are beginning to expose each other. 2010 is already very interesting and January is not even over yet !!

@Mikeansy


A man who as a Soldier was at the vanguard of negotiations that led to the end of the civil war,

Obj joined the army and was involved in negotiations because he happened to be on the spot. Anybody who was in command at that time would have been involved in negotiation. It does not require any intiative on his part. Neither did it require an executive decision. That was the responsibility of Gowon ad C-in-C. He did not have a choice anyway. Would he have continued fighting if those people wanted to surrender.

A man as Military head of State oversaw the first transfer of Power from Military to Civilian,
Because he felt he was under siege and was not ready to die. One of the reasons Gowon was removed was because he changed the handover date. So Obj would not like to risk his neck. Remember that he did not have the courage to take the seat of head of state when Muritala died. was Danjuma that prodded him at the meeting before he could do so. His latter 3rd term ambition confirmed that he would really like to stay on if he had had the type of confidence that he had gathered in 2007


a man who as civilian President took a lot of tough decisions to pay-off our international debts,
What will he have done with all that money anyway? The huge money expended on the debt repayment was cticised by some people even by Soludo at some point.
The guy never received from the sale of crude oil less than he budgeted. Crude oil price rose steadily from $18 to over $90 under his watch. Price of petrol rose from N19 to N65.
He made a lot of money from privatisation. Privatisation is actually cashing in savings (investments) made by previous administrations
He realised a lot from sale of GSM licence without fulfilling the promise to use proceeds to develop telecom infrstracture that would have reduced tariff

Part of his tough decisions was to keep telling Ribadu to do further work on the case against Bode George. We now know that the man was guilty. He gathered world leaders during the CHOGM (commonwealth head of government) meeting in 2003 and announced that a lot of high- ranking government officials were corrupt and sacked Sunday Afolabi over the ID card issue. After the drama, which further tarnished Nigeria's image as a corrupt nation (while burnishing Obj's as corruption fighter), he did not prosecute or jail a single person based on this scandal

left a huge reserve at the time he was handing over,

When you look at the NEEDS document, it says that we made $300b between 1970 and 2000, an average of $10b pa. Obasanjo's  made more than this average of $10b during his tenure of 1999 - 2007!

pursued a lot of progressive policies can not be described as an enemy of state.

Tell us the progressive policies and we will bring the chart of growth in government revenue, number of aircraft in the presidential fleet vis-a-vis growth in national minimum wage and cost of living

But the truth is that if OBJ was ready to take down the country if he does not get his wish all he needed to do was to dissolve the National Assembly. He did not have the power to dissolve the national assembly! The crisis he would have faced if he had thought of it, let alone do it would have consumed him. He was a civilian president with huge powers who could walk a governor out of a metting. But he dared not attempt to dissolve the national asembly. He could not even sack his VP - Atiku.

He tried to change the constitution to continue in office, the method in which he tried to change the constitution was recognised in law and provided for in the existing constitution. When his attempt failed he accepted the decision of the National Assembly and handed over power.
Did he have a choice? Can he just subvert the constitution while holding power as a civilian?

The attempt to change the constitution while politically incorrect and maybe immoral depending on what you believe . . . . . . . it is in no way illegal. This is somebody who once criticised Gowon for trying to come back through democratic means when IBB was president. Yet he did exactly the same thing and, worse, tried to perpetuate himself in office. Not illegal, but clearly amoral to just stir up needless crisis. You think the North, even other regions in the South, would have accepted it just like that. Did you know that that project cost us a lot of money in bribe etc?


So in my book OBJ is a great man who the good things he has done for Nigeria outweighs the bad.

I have read your book and I don't agree with the conclusions
I have only responded to the issues you raised. I still have enough facts to drown the man even in a desert!

To bad that Obj is still allowed to chair an occation

Obj my guy if not for obj there would be no Goodluck Jonathan or southern vp or even a Nigeria period.

Obj keeps Nigeria as one. whether by hook or crook.

Str8talk

I would respond to your comments when you speak on facts not perceptions, conjectures and rumours

MAYOWAAK:

This man is the biggest problem of Nigeria.

So, it wasn't PDP that selected Umoru, it was OBJ! He alone also imposed him on Nigerians!

In 2006, OBJ thought it wasn't a good idea to hand over to a southerner. Where is his claim to statesmanship if leadership is about where you come from, not your ability to deliver? The same idea he had in 1976 when he handed over to Sheu Shagari, a grade II teacher, in a country of intellectuals!

LOL.

@mikeansy
Let us be fair to ourselves
Fact - Obj made money from privatisation
Fact - he made money from sale of GSM licences ($285m- MTN and Econet $200m- Glo and $400m - etisalat)
Fact - Obj increased fuel price from N19 to N65
Fact - Crude oil price rose from $18 to over $90 during his rein
Fact - He was nearly bankrupt ib 1999
Fact - he owns chain of schools including a university now
Fact - He criticised Gowon for trying to come back as a civilian
Fact - He came back as civilian president
Fact - He wanted a 3rd term
Fact - he claims to have fought to make Nigerian 1; he also gave Bakassi away, an unprecedent action
Fact - he announced the national ID scam while CHOGM was in Nigeria, but he did not prosecute the culprits
Fact - "As petroleum minister" he did not know that kerosene was more expensive than petrol
Fact - When the perm sec of Ministry of defence was discovered to have embezzled money and was sacked, Obj got the AGf to enter a nolle prosequi to stop the trial of the perm sec - makanjuola, Obj's cousin
Fact - Obj never had powers to dissolve the national assemly
Fact - Adedibu was his mentor
Fact - Obj has ruled the country for more than 11.5years (>20% of our national post indpendence life)

We can go on
Like I said, check the NEEDS documents and find out what Obj promised and delivered

@str8talk.
Everything you have said is Total Rubbish! Doesn't make any sense at all to me. You're even contradicting yourself in a number of points. I don't have the patience to type alot cos i'm on mobile, i'd have pointed out some disgracefull comments you made.

Its total waste of time trying to respond to str8talk's 'facts'. Many of them are untrue, unfounded, personal opinions and don't just make sense. You just don't like the man. Obj is one of the best things that happened to Nigeria like it or not. His tenure was a blessing, like it or not.
BTW, i most especially missed his jokes on TV (lol)

@AAK
Please point to the disgraceful comments. Somebody said I should produce facts and I came up with those facts. It is now your duty to debunk what I have said
@toluxa1
We should deal with facts. Whether or not I like Obj will not change those facts. You say there are many untruths in my statement. Please point them out
Bakassi people do not think that his time in office was a blessing
Similarly, Anambra people who saw the destruction by thugs bent on creating the atmosphere to declare a state of emergency while Ngige was governore do not believe that he was a blessing
People who believe in the rule of law were not disappointed when the only reaction from Obj was a demand for Chris Uba to leave his office when Uba told Obj that he (Uba) rigged election in Anambra. Now this is what Obj said in his letter to Audu Ogbeh and cannot be contested

The damage OBJ did to our educational sector alone far outweighs any good deed he may have done.

Asked why he imposed Yar’Adua on Nigerians, well aware of his health problem, Obasanjo said he asked for Yar’Adua’s medical record in 2006. According to him, the ailing leader showed him medical records that showed that even though he was on dialysis as a kidney patient before, he Yar’Adua was no more on dialysis.

‘’I gave the report to medical experts who also confirmed that he was fit since he was no longer under dialysis’’.   Obasanjo explained that he requested for Yar’Adua’s medic history because he was aware that the former Katsina Governor spent six months in Nigeria tendering to his kidney problem.

9iralanders, please set up a commission to investigate dis mallam's credentials. May be na cow rearing he do for Katsina come say him na chemistry teacher whatsoever. Please, who'll lead dis board of enquiry

.hmm. . .the drama c0ntinues. .

Good evening all,

i've been following your discussion for a while and would like to say that it has been both informative and refreshing, keep up the Good work.

i strongly believe Obj did what was best at the time, its unfortunate things are falling apart.

OBJ Never loved nigeria and never will,going by history,he is a shame and always will be.