Interview, News

Obasanjo Is A Liar – Iyorchia Ayu

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been exposed by former Senator President, Iyorchia Ayu

Dr. Iyorchia Ayu

“President Obasanjo was my boss. I served as a minister in three ministries under him. One of them was the Ministry of Environment which was my last ministerial assignment. I have great respect for him. All the leaders I have worked with I hardly come in public to attack them or expose what transpired between me and them.”

“However, let me say that President Obasanjo is the architect of our current Nigeria’s problems. He had a great opportunity to set in motion correct policies including the issue of the green belt in the North, border control. I was also minister of Internal Affairs, I know how much pressure I put on him to improve the border question in Nigeria.”

“President Obasanjo was not interested in these policies. He is somebody who is very opportunistic, a man who wants to always be on the correct side of history. President Obasanjo never planned to exit power, he wanted to continue in office. He talked to me three times to support him but I refused. He comes out and tells lies, he tells people that he is the solution to Nigeria’s problems.”

“But he is the problem of Nigeria. He brought in a successor, virtually imposed on the country a leader he knew very well was terminally ill. A competent man I must say, Umaru Yar’Adua, we were contemporary in the university, we were very close -patriotic, intelligent and he meant well, but he was terminally ill. Obasanjo imposed him on the country.”

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“He brought in a weak leader, who had no political experience whatsoever as a running mate. He did that believing that when Yar’Adua leaves the scene, he, President Obasanjo would continue to dominate the political and economic landscape by controlling the weak President Jonathan. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.”

“The failure of Jonathan is the failure of General Obasanjo because succession is important in leadership. If you create a weak succession that cannot even carry on whatever policy you have put in place you have failed. People talk today, speak glowingly of Tinubu in Lagos. The success of Tinubu is not because he ruled Lagos for two terms but it is the quality of leadership succession he has established in Lagos.”

“The continuity of policies is the thing that makes Tinubu a successful leader in Lagos and perhaps in Nigeria. Obasanjo is not such a successful leader. He is a man who created problems because the failure of Jonathan produced President Buhari who everybody knew had no capacity to run this country.”

“Obasanjo supported him for his own selfish interest. He thought he was his junior in the army and he, Obasanjo will continue to influence policies. Obasanjo has no moral right to tell Nigerians today that Buhari should leave power.”

“The proposal by Gen. Obasanjo about a coalition is a subversion of democracy. The coalition he is calling for is undemocratic. It is virtually another military dictatorship Nigerians will not accept. We don’t need coalition. We need elections, we need political parties to come out and throw up competent candidates that can run this country.”

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“Nigerians should have a right to elect a leader who is capable of running this country. Somebody well trained in both policy and politics, who can run Nigeria is what we need. We don’t need the contraption that Obasanjo is bringing. He wants to continue to run Nigeria through the backdoor. Nigerians will not accept that.”

“Nigeria has so many political parties, others are coming up. Even the ones he thinks are bad, who destroyed them? Who destroyed PDP? It was President Obasanjo. We formed PDP as an opposition to dictatorship. We formed PDP as a patriotic movement designed to help deepen democracy and develop Nigeria. PDP achieved a lot.”

“First, all the perennial coup plotters were retired from the army. That enabled democratic government to survive for sometime. A number of things were done. Unfortunately, we negotiated succession with the military and they literally imposed Obasanjo on the party who to my mind was not a democrat. He had no democratic temper or credentials. He went ahead removing governors.”

“For instance, he removed Joshua Dariye with eight lawmakers in a House of 24 members. He got five people to remove Alamieyeseigha in Bayelsa. He got a few people to remove Ladoja in Oyo. He held the revenue of Lagos state for almost 14 months .It was an illegality. We are in a federation. Obasanjo never believed or acted as a democratic president. He created the instability we are facing today. So, he has no solution to this country’s problems.”

“I believe that political parties must be allowed to grow in spite of the difficulties. Those that Nigerians do not want will be rejected. Those that Nigerians think are doing well will be elected. I believe as we struggle along, put in place correct “policies including asserting ourselves in the West African sub region, we will get our country back on its feet. We need the region by setting example with good policies. Nigeria has to make sure that governments in West Africa are stable. The success of these governments is the success of our country. We cannot just stand by and do nothing.”

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“The reclamation of Lake Chad, for example, would have been the success of Nigeria. It would have benefitted Nigeria more, we would not have had Boko Haram ravaging the whole of North East. It is the failure of the economic system in Lake Chad Basin that has generated Boko Haram with a pool of army that is very easy to recruit. A leader who understands this domestic and regional problems is what we need , we don’t need a contraption which Obasanjo will continue to influence. In his letter, he said that he will be an active member of the coalition . He has retired as a former Head of State, he should go and sit down and rest.”

– Culled from The Sun