December 20th 2013
His Excellency,
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR
Agbe L’Oba House, Quarry Road,
Ibara, Abeokuta.
RE: BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
I wish to formally acknowledge
your letter dated December 2, 2013
and other previous correspondence
similar to it.
You will recall that all the letters
were brought to me by hand.
Although both of us discussed
some of the issues in those letters, I
had not, before now, seen the need
for any formal reply since, to me,
they contained advice from a
former President to a serving
President. Obviously, you felt
differently because in your last
letter, you complained about my
not acknowledging or replying your
previous letters.
It is with the greatest possible
reluctance that I now write this
reply. I am most uneasy about
embarking on this unprecedented
and unconventional form of open
communication between me and a
former leader of our country
because I know that there are more
acceptable and dignified means of
doing so.
But I feel obliged to reply your letter
for a number of reasons: one, you
formally requested for a reply and
not sending you one will be
interpreted as ignoring a former
President.
Secondly, Nigerians know the role
you have played in my political life
and given the unfortunate tone of
your letter, clearly, the grapes have
gone sour. Therefore, my side of the
story also needs to be told.
The third reason why I must reply
you in writing is that your letter is
clearly a threat to national security
as it may deliberately or
inadvertently set the stage for
subversion.
The fourth reason for this reply is
that you raised very weighty issues,
and since the letter has been made
public, Nigerians are expressing
legitimate concerns. A response
from me therefore, becomes very
necessary.
The fifth reason is that this letter
may appear in biographies and
other books which political
commentators on Nigeria’s
contemporary politics may write. It
is only proper for such publications
to include my comments on the
issues raised in your letter.
Sixthly, you are very unique in
terms of the governance of this
country. You were a military Head
of State for three years and eight
months, and an elected President
for eight years. That means you
have been the Head of Government
of Nigeria for about twelve years.
This must have, presumably,
exposed you to a lot of information.
Thus when you make a statement,
there is the tendency for people to
take it seriously.
The seventh reason is that the
timing of your letter coincided with
other vicious releases. The Speaker
of the House of Representatives
spoke of my “body language”
encouraging corruption. A letter
written to me by the CBN Governor
alleging that NNPC, within a period
of 19 months did not remit the sum
of USD49.8 billion to the federation
account, was also deliberately
leaked to the public.
The eighth reason is that it appears
that your letter was designed to
incite Nigerians from other
geopolitical zones against me and
also calculated to promote ethnic
disharmony. Worse still, your letter
was designed to instigate members
of our Party, the PDP, against me.
The ninth reason is that your letter
conveys to me the feeling that
landmines have been laid for me.
Therefore, Nigerians need to have
my response to the issues raised
before the mines explode.
The tenth and final reason why my
reply is inevitable is that you have
written similar letters and made
public comments in reference to all
former Presidents and Heads of
Government starting from Alhaji
Shehu Shagari and these have
instigated different actions and
reactions. The purpose and
direction of your letter is distinctly
ominous, and before it is too late,
my clarifications on the issues need
to be placed on record.
Let me now comment on the issues
you raised. In commenting I wish to
crave your indulgence to compare
what is happening now to what
took place before. This, I believe,
will enable Nigerians see things in
better perspective because we must
know where we are coming from so
as to appreciate where we now are,
and to allow us clearly map out
where we are going.
You raised concerns about the
security situation in the country. I
assure you that I am fully aware of
the responsibility of government for
ensuring the security of the lives
and property of citizens. My
Administration is working
assiduously to overcome current
national security challenges, the
seeds of which were sown under
previous administrations. There
have been some setbacks; but
certainly there have also been great
successes in our efforts to
overcome terrorism and
insurgency.
Those who continue to down-play
our successes in this regard,
amongst whom you must now be
numbered, appear to have
conveniently forgotten the depths to
which security in our country had
plunged before now.
At a stage, almost the entire North-
East of Nigeria was under siege by
insurgents. Bombings of churches
and public buildings in the North
and the federal capital became an
almost weekly occurrence. Our
entire national security apparatus
seemed nonplussed and unable to
come to grips with the new threat
posed by the berthing of terrorism
on our shores.
But my administration has since
brought that very unacceptable
situation under significant control.
We have overhauled our entire
national security architecture,
improved intelligence gathering,
training, funding, logistical support
to our armed forces and security
agencies, and security collaboration
with friendly countries with very
visible and positive results.
The scope and impact of terrorist
operations have been significantly
reduced and efforts are underway
to restore full normalcy to the most
affected North Eastern region and
initiate a post-crisis development
agenda, including a special
intervention programme to boost
the region’s socio-economic
progress.
In doing all this, we have kept our
doors open for dialogue with the
insurgents and their supporters
through efforts such as the work of
the Presidential Committee on
Dialogue and the Peaceful
Resolution of the Security
Challenges in the North-East. You
also know that the Governor of
Borno State provided the items you
mentioned to me as carrots. Having
done all this and more, it is
interesting that you still accuse me
of not acting on your hardly original
recommendation that the carrot
and stick option be deployed to
solve the Boko Haram problem.
Your suggestion that we are
pursuing a “war against violence
without understanding the root
causes of the violence and applying
solutions to deal with all the
underlying factors” is definitely
misplaced because from the onset
of this administration, we have
been implementing a multifaceted
strategy against militancy,
insurgency and terrorism that
includes poverty alleviation,
economic development, education
and social reforms.
Even though basic education is the
constitutional responsibility of
States, my administration has, as
part of its efforts to address
ignorance and poor education
which have been identified as two
of the factors responsible for
making some of our youth easily
available for use as cannon fodder
by insurgents and terrorists,
committed huge funds to the
provision of modern basic
education schools for the Almajiri
in several Northern States. The
Federal Government under my
leadership has also set up nine
additional universities in the
Northern States and three in the
Southern States in keeping with my
belief that proper education is the
surest way of emancipating and
empowering our people.
More uncharitable persons may
even see a touch of
sanctimoniousness in your new
belief in the carrot and stick
approach to overcoming militancy
and insurgency. You have always
referred to how you hit Odi in
Bayelsa State to curb militancy in
the Niger Delta. If the invasion of
Odi by the Army was the stick, I did
not see the corresponding carrot. I
was the Deputy Governor of
Bayelsa State then, and as I have
always told you, the invasion of Odi
did not solve any militancy problem
but, to some extent, escalated it. If
it had solved it, late President
Yar’Adua would not have had to
come up with the amnesty
program. And while some elements
of the problem may still be there, in
general, the situation is reasonably
better.
In terms of general insecurity in the
country and particularly the crisis
in the Niger Delta, 2007 was one of
the worst periods in our history.
You will recall three incidents that
happened in 2007 which seemed to
have been orchestrated to achieve
sinister objectives. Here in Abuja, a
petrol tanker loaded with explosives
was to be rammed into the INEC
building. But luckily for the country,
an electric pole stopped the tanker
from hitting the INEC building. It is
clear that this incident was meant
to exploit the general sense of
insecurity in the nation at the time
to achieve the aim of stopping the
2007 elections. It is instructive that
you, on a number of occasions,
alluded to this fact.
When that incident failed, an armed
group invaded Yenagoa one
evening with the intent to
assassinate me. Luckily for me,
they could not. They again attacked
and bombed my country home on a
night when I was expected in the
village. Fortunately, as God would
have it, I did not make the trip.
I recall that immediately after both
incidents, I got calls expressing the
concern of Abuja. But Baba, you
know that despite the apparent
concern of Abuja, no single arrest
was ever made. I was then the
Governor of Bayelsa State and the
PDP Vice-Presidential candidate.
The security people ordinarily
should have unraveled the
assassination attempt on me.
You also raised the issues of
kidnapping, piracy and armed
robbery. These are issues all
Nigerians, including me are very
concerned about. While we will
continue to do our utmost best to
reduce all forms of criminality to
the barest minimum in our country,
it is just as well to remind you that
the first major case of kidnapping
for ransom took place around
2006. And the Boko Haram crisis
dates back to 2002. Goodluck
Jonathan was not the President of
the country then. Also, armed
robbery started in this country
immediately after the civil war and
since then, it has been a problem to
all succeeding governments. For a
former Head of Government, who
should know better, to present
these problems as if they were
creations of the Jonathan
Administration is most
uncharitable.
Having said that, let me remind you
of some of the things we have done
to curb violent crime in the country.
We have reorganized the Nigerian
Police Force and appointed a more
dynamic leadership to oversee its
affairs. We have also improved its
manpower levels as well as
funding, training and logistical
support.
We have also increased the
surveillance capabilities of the
Police and provided its air-wing
with thrice the number of
helicopters it had before the
inception of the present
administration. The National Civil
Defence and Security Corps has
been armed to make it a much
more effective ally of the police and
other security agencies in the war
against violent crime. At both
domestic and international levels,
we are doing everything possible to
curb the proliferation of the small
arms and light weapons with which
armed robberies, kidnappings and
piracy are perpetrated. We have
also enhanced security at our
borders to curb cross-border
crimes.
We are aggressively addressing the
challenge of crude oil theft in
collaboration with the state
Governors. In addition, the Federal
Government has engaged the
British and US governments for
their support in the tracking of the
proceeds from the purchase of
stolen crude. Similarly, a regional
Gulf of Guinea security strategy has
been initiated to curb crude oil theft
and piracy.
Perhaps the most invidious
accusation in your letter is the
allegation that I have placed over
one thousand Nigerians on a
political watch list, and that I am
training snipers and other militia to
assassinate people. Baba, I don’t
know where you got that from but
you do me grave injustice in not
only lending credence to such
baseless rumours, but also
publicizing it. You mentioned God
seventeen times in your letter. Can
you as a Christian hold the Bible
and say that you truly believe this
allegation?
