How Obasanjo and I fell apart - IBB

Fresh facts emerged yesterday that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Military President Ibrahim Babangida are at daggers drawn since the botched Third Term agenda which was opposed by Babangida.

Babangida, who gave the hint of the crisis of confidence in an interview with African Statesman to mark his 70th birthday, also said ordinary Nigerians do not need debate on the appropriate tenure system instead, they want how their condition will improve.He explained that Obasanjo had invited him and three others to the Presidential Villa to seek their support for the Third term agenda.
The others are: ex-Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and  ex-National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau (rtd).

He said Obasanjo sought his assistance and that of three others to push through his tenure elongation but the four leaders rejected his proposal.

Babangida said at a point, he told Obasanjo as follows: “It is true that we brought you and assisted you to get elected by Nigerians. You have now made new friends and we expect that those new friends would push you through.”

He said based on his comment, Obasanjo simply wanted to “know if that was the position of the G4.”
Babangida also admitted that Obasanjo, who was seething with anger, did not only accuse him of supporting ex-Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, he cut short the meeting and promised to get back to the G4 till today.

 The ex-President inferred that his opposition to Obasanjo’s tenure elongation mght have accounted for why Obasanjo dumped him in 2007 for the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.   

     
According to the magazine, Babangida and others’ anti-third term agenda made the former Civilian President to “go after his perceived and imaginary enemies by subtly using the EFCC to witch-hunt them.” 

                                 
 He said he was investigated by the Obasanjo administration for his  imaginary “stolen billions” allegedly stashed in Switzerland, Germany, Norway, France, the US and the UK.       He took exception to the arrest of his son, Mohammed, about his supposed investment in Glo Telecommunicationsm.

He added: “I have challenged anyone to come forward to tell Nigerians that this is what he or she gave me as bribe or kickback in exchange for contract, nobody has broken that challenge till date.                                     ”You know when news is flying all over the place that IBB is a billionaire and they suddenly discovered he is not, they must find something to justify their earlier notion. We have fertile minds around.”

The frenzy about the alleged attempt of former President Obasanjo to extend his tenure trailed the twilight of his administration. 
The tenure elongation plot was widely believed to be the underlining motive behind the 2005 constitutional conference.

The conference was believed to have collapsed when the president’s foot soldiers failed to get ‘extraneous’ clauses inserted into the constitutional document.

There were also allegations and counter-allegations of attempts to induce members of the National Assembly to railroad the plot through them.

When contacted, Obasanjo’s media aide, Mr Ojekunle Adeoba, said the former president did not wish to comment.
It would be recalled that on Saturday, May 19, 2007, Obasanjo denied having interest in the botched Third Term bid. He said he never planned to extend his tenure in office, and that he would have achieved the feat of another four-year term in Aso Rock if he so desired.
He made the clarification during his last appearance on a radio programme, ‘The President Explains’.

His words: “If I sought a third term, and I wanted it, I would have got it. I have not said this before. God would have given it to me. I did not want it. If I had wanted a third term, I would have prayed for it, I would have worked for it and God would have given it to me. I know this because there is nothing I wanted that God did not give me”.

Babangida  said in the interview that he is still of the view that Nigerians do not need any debate on the appropriate tenure system for the President and governors.

He said: “We have not yet, even in our constitution, emphasized the power of the ordinary person, we have not educated them to know their certain rights, we have not put things in place to protect them if they do anything in the defence of this country.

“What you bother yourselves with are things like tenure elongation, revenue sharing formula which we have been doing since 1960.
‘All these things I do read in the papers have no bearing or whatsoever to the ordinary man; the ordinary man should be told. Look if you like today, I’m available in Minna, if the police arrest me today and I don’t want to talk, I don’t talk.

“I should know that I am protected. I should know that the government takes care of us and I have always given one example. I believe that the government should make it mandatory to provide free primary education at the primary level to all citizens of the country. 
“Those are the things that are for the people that people should be talking about, not the tenure of the President or government, not the immunity clause, not the creation of states.

“I laugh when I see people talk about fiscal federalism, true federalism and when you go to our archives you will find out those discussions were done as far back as 1967 up till today, people are still talking about them.

“We made a Constitution that takes care of all these things since 1989 again it was jettisoned because the ‘most dreaded’ person in Nigeria created that constitution.

On June 12, 1993 presidential election, Babangida said if he had handed over to the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, his administration would not have lasted three months.

He added: “Look, we handed it over to an interim government, the military toppled the interim government, it would have been easier to topple a democratically elected government at that time and I knew the consequences.
“The Interim Government was not democratically elected; the international community would move against Nigeria , the feeble population in the country, a lot of unrest, the military will bring a lot of changes in the system.
“Based on our own assessment, if we employ a democratically elected leader under the presumed winner, it would not have lasted longer than Chief Ernest Shonekan’s regime.

“I said this because I know the environment very well. All the coups that happened in this country, Nigerians caused it and created the environment.”

Asked why he has refused to apologise to Nigerians over the annulment of June 12. 1993 presidential poll, Babangida said Nigerians will still fault him.

He said he has a strong conviction that he should not do so.
“Let us assume I come out and say my fellow citizens and fellow country men, I used your brains, ‘I hurt you,’ ‘I’m sorry, it is not me,’ ‘It didn’t come from me,’ ‘I’m using your words, I’m sorry, the next headline somebody will say why did it take 18 years to come and apologise?
“You see, you are working on history; somebody will come and say why did you take 18 years?  They forget that people who committed offence during the first and second World War and even the civil war are being pardoned till today but a Nigerian is not going to do that, he will continue to hammer you until you go to your grave.”

story by thenationonlineng