Jonathan Replies Obasanjo, Says letter Is Self-Serving, Provocative

Angry Jonathan replies Obasanjo, says
letter is self-serving, provocative

President Goodluck Jonathan has
dismissed as “most reckless” and
“unjustifiable” a fiercely scathing letter
he received from former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, in which Mr.
Obasanjo accused him of lying,
condoning corruption, and leading
Nigeria to the brink of collapse.

A statement by the president’s aide,
Reuben Abati, said the allegations by
the former president were “baseless
and indecorous.”

The statement said Mr. Jonathan has
directed his aides not to respond to the
barrage of attacks and allegations from
Mr. Obasanjo, listed in an 18-page
letter exclusively published by
PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr. Jonathan will personally respond to
the charges at the “appropriate time”,
the statement said.
“While many patriotic, objective and
well-meaning Nigerians have already
condemned the leaked letter as self-
serving, hypocritical, malicious,
indecent, and very disrespectful of the
highest office in the land, President
Jonathan has directed that none of his
aides or any government official should
join issues with Chief Obasanjo over
it,” Mr. Abati said.

“The president himself will, at the
appropriate time, offer a full personal
response to the most reckless,
baseless, unjustifiable and indecorous
charges levelled against him and his
administration by the former Head of
State.”

In the highly acerbic letter, Mr.
Obasanjo laid out a series of
allegations against Mr. Jonathan,
accusing him of corruption and
ineptitude.

Mr. Obasanjo lamented that Mr.
Jonathan had become terribly divisive
and clannish, destroying his own party,
polarizing the country along regional
and religious lines and ridiculing
Nigeria in the comity of nations.
He blamed Mr. Jonathan for the crises
tearing the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, apart, and accused him of
lacking in personal integrity by
consistently lying about his ambition
for a new term of office.

Mr. Obasanjo also tackled Mr.
Jonathan for allegedly being clannish.
“For you to allow yourself to be
“possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion
of most of the rest of Nigerians as an
“Ijaw man” is a mistake that should
never have been allowed to happen.
Yes, you have to be born in one part of
Nigeria to be Nigerian if not naturalized
but the Nigerian President must be
above ethnic factionalism. And those
who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw
nation’ are not your friends genuinely,
not friends of Nigeria nor friends of
‘Ijaw nation’ they tout about.

“To allow or tacitly encourage people of
‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other
Nigerians from other parts of the
country and threaten fire and
brimstone to protect your interest as an
Ijaw man is myopic and your not
openly quieting them is even more
unfortunate.”

The former president also accused Mr.
Jonathan of placing over 1000
Nigerians on political watch list and
“training snipers and other armed
personnel secretly and clandestinely
acquiring weapons to match for
political purposes like Abacha and
training them where Abacha trained his
killers”.

The former President also called on the
National Assembly to rise up and take
decisive action over the allegation that
the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation failed to remit billions of
dollars in proceed of crude oil sales to
the federation account.

“This allegation will not fly away by
non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing
possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo
told the President. “Please deal with
this allegation transparently and let the
truth be known.”

The Senate on Wednesday ordered an
investigation. The senate committee on
finance is to probe the allegation and
make its findings known in seven days.
The presidency did not respond to any
of the issues specifically beyond
dismissing them as “provocative and
unjustifiable.”

Mr. Abati said President Jonathan will
respond personally. But the statement
criticised the leakage of the letter to the
media.
“We however find it highly unbecoming,
mischievous and provocative that a
letter written by a former Head of State
and respected elder statesman to
President Jonathan has been
deliberately leaked to the mass media
in a deplorable effort to impugn the
integrity of the president and denigrate
his commitment to giving Nigeria the
best possible leadership,” the
statement said.

Read the statement by the president’s
spokesperson, Reuben Abati, below.

OBASANJO’S LETTER UNBECOMING,
SELF-SERVING AND HIGHLY
PROVOCATIVE

We have noted the publication on
several websites today of a letter
recently written by Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo to President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan.

The Presidency acknowledges that it
has indeed received the said letter from
Chief Obasanjo.

We however find it highly unbecoming,
mischievous and provocative that a
letter written by a former Head of State
and respected elder statesman to
President Jonathan has been
deliberately leaked to the mass media
in a deplorable effort to impugn the
integrity of the President and denigrate
his commitment to giving Nigeria the
best possible leadership.

While many patriotic, objective and
well-meaning Nigerians have already
condemned the leaked letter as self-
serving, hypocritical, malicious,
indecent, and very disrespectful of the
highest office in the land, President
Jonathan has directed that none of his
aides or any government official should
join issues with Chief Obasanjo over it.

The President himself will, at the
appropriate time, offer a full personal
response to the most reckless,
baseless, unjustifiable and indecorous
charges levied against him and his
administration by the former Head of
State.

Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
December 11, 2013