The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the presidency on Sunday expressed their displeasure at former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Obasanjo in the letter titled ‘For the record: Points of concern and action,’ dissipated the Buhari government; a government he vigorously supported to oust former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
Obasanjo accused the Buhari government of returning Nigeria back to the era of military dictator, Sani Abacha who ruled the country ruthlessly without minding whose ox was gored.
The APC in a response to the former president’s accusation said he (Obasanjo) was being haunted by his past when elections were rigged and government institutions were denied independence.
The National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, stated this at a media interaction in Abuja on Sunday.
He said, “For eight years of President Obasanjo, all the elections he held…in fact government policies were determined by whatever mood he found himself. All the institutions of government were heavily influenced by Obasanjo. What he did for those eight years is what is haunting him. He cannot imagine it is possible for a government to allow INEC the statutory independence that it has.”
Onilu said elections conducted under the APC government so far were credible. He said the APC should be commended for allowing institutions to perform their duties without interference.
The Presidency, speaking through the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, asked the former President to tell Nigerians if elections were ever free and fair during his time in office.
Speaking on Politics Today on Channels TV, Adesina said, “Let me start by saying that President Muhammadu Buhari has abiding respect for former President Olusegun Obasanjo. You know they come from a constituency in which seniority is forever.
“President Obasanjo was superior to President Buhari in the military. President Buhari served under him for three and a quarter years as oil Minister.
“What the former President has said is his opinion and this is a democracy, he has a right to it.
“You also forget that in this country when former President Obasanjo was in power there were many things that constituted impunity in that government.
“So like they said the onlooker sees more of the game than the player.
“It is so easy for the former President to sit back in his chair reclining and criticise a government but many things that constitute impunity would have happened under his government.
“Like I said and like you have observed it is just an opinion of one man and it doesn’t constitute the gospel.”
Also speaking on allegation of increasing rate of insecurity, he said, “There are security challenges but I tell you that these security challenges are being tackled.
“Even under the time of Obasanjo, there had been Odi killings. Under him was when we had Zaki Biam massacre; under him there were lots OPC clashes; under him there Sharia riot, OPC ethnic clashes, lots of lives lost. So nobody can just come and sit in judgment over another government. When worst things happen under his government.”
On the allegation that the ruling APC was planning to rig the forthcoming elections in collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, he said, “Yes INEC can always defend itself and I am sure they would.
“But then imagine that kind of allegation coming from somebody who told us in 2007 that the election will be do-or-die and the beneficiary of that election came out to tell us that the election that brought him to power was marred in all respect.
“Now for that kind of a person to come out and tell us that the election will not be free and fair, was there free and fair election when he conducted his own? That is the question Nigerians should be asking.”
