By Akinwale Kasali
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come under strong criticism as the main architect of the woes bedeviling Nigeria since 1999.
Northern Youth Group under aegis of Northern Youth Assembly, NYA, blamed him as one of the people that plunged Nigeria into the chaotic state it finds itself.
The Northern group maintained that the Country has never been subjected to serious economic backwardness beginning from the 16 years PDP held power, out of which former Obasanjo was in charge for eight years.
This accusation was contained in a Press Statement signed by the National Assistant Publicity Secretary of the Group, Comrade Muhammad Hussein in Kano over the weekend.
According to the statement “Obasanjo blatantly created and nurtured some of these national problems plaguing Nigeria to an overwhelming limit with successive administrations feeling the heat of the synthetic problems.
“The intention and plan by former President Obasanjo to organize some civil society and other critics of Buhari administration to form a coalition that will mount additional pressure on already fragile state of politics and insecurity in Nigeria is not new, as he has done same with many previous administrations.
“Obasanjo known to most Nigerians is a thoroughly self- centred leader that only sees fault in previous and every subsequent leader except for those serving his personal interest.
“His performance record and corrupt precedents has for long denied him any inviolability to speak from moral prism on the present happenings in the country.
The Group stressed that the “Third Term Agenda” was widely acknowledged that former President Obasanjo, sought to change the Nigerian constitution to prolong his stay in power by running for an unconstitutional third term for the Presidency in 2007.
To achieve his intention, numerous state resources were squandered by and his boys amounting to about $500 million, diverted from the Excess Crude Account and invested same in the failed third-term bid.”
Comrade Hussein went down memory lane that in an interactive session with Punch in 2011, Abike Dabiri, a two-term member of the House of Reps and a former Senator, Lawal Shuaibu, confessed that the administration of Obasanjo offered the sum of N50 Million bribe each to members of NASS to secure third term in office for the former President.
“While embezzlement of public funds and the $16 Billion Dollars power funding and the his eight tenure left Nigeria’s infrastructure in total disrepair the administration claimed to have spent over $4 billion in construction and repair of federal roads.”
This spending, the Group claimis completely contrary to the conditions of the roads they claimed to have sunk the money into.
It added that under Obasanjo’s watch, Nigerians were defrauded of $16 Billion Dollars meant to fix the country’s power problem.
“Unfortunately most of this money were stolen and Nigeria was deprived of an opportunity to get over its energy problem.”
The Group in the statement said that as a result of this corruption and mismanagement of funds, shortage of energy supply has continued to undermine Nigeria’s potential of assuming its rightful position as regional economic super power.
“Sadly, when Obasanjo left power, most of the country’s power stations were operating at less than 30 percent of their capacity.
It also accused the former President of human rights abuses.
“The Odi and Zaki Biam Massacres under Obasanjo’s two terms in office, were the worst massacres recorded in Nigeria through Government forces.
“The Odi massacre was an attack carried out on November 20, 1999, by the Nigerian military on the predominantly Ijaw town of in Bayelsa State. The attack came in the context of an ongoing conflict in the Niger Delta over indigenous rights to oil resources and environmental protection.
“Environmental Rights Action, ERA, claimed that nearly 2,500 civilians were killed. People generally say that, the massacre was ordered by the regime of former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice president Atiku Abubakar.
“The Zaki-Biam Massacre was a mass execution of hundreds of unarmed Tiv civilians by the Nigerian Army between 20 – 24 of October 2001. The massacre was a surreptitious operation of the Nigerian army to avenge the killing of 19 soldiers, whose mutilated bodies were found on 12 October 2001, near some Tiv villages in Benue State. While the total number of victims is not yet established till today, survivors and eyewitnesses have reported that at least 100 and possibly more than 200 people died in the hands of the soldiers.”
Little to No Personal Morals”
It furthermore added that Obasanjo has been entangled in number of immoral precedents, and such revelations emanated from his immediate family members.
“His first wife Oluremi Obasanjo broke it in spectacular style with a tell-all autobiography, Bitter-Sweet: My Life with Obasanjo published in 2008, where she portrayed Obasanjo as a sly, violent, vindictive womaniser.
“In 2008 an allegation was made by his son Gbenga in a sworn affidavit, submitted to a divorce court in Lagos, that he is having an affair with the son’s wife. In 2013 his daughter Iyabo, ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite.
“Senator Iyabo Obasanjo in a letter to her father accused him of having an egoistic craving for power and living a life where only men of low esteem and intellect thrive.
Iyabo accused her father of orchestrating a third term for himself as President, cruelty to family members, abandonment of children and grandchildren, and also, a legendary reputation of maltreatment of women.
“On August 22, 2005, the then Governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, submitted a petition alleging corrupt practices against Mr Obasanjo to the EFCC. A second petition was delivered two years later – in November 2007 – by the Coalition against Corrupt Leaders, a non-governmental organisation headed by Debo Adeniran, a civil society activist. Few of these corruption allegation against Obasanjo included: the hostels and sports complex at Obasanjo’s Bells Secondary School and University were constructed by STRABAG Construction Company with taxpayers’ money, at about ₦40 billion.
“Obasanjo used his Presidential powers to approve a licence to Obasanjo Farms, which was in “shambles”.
It also observed that till today, Obasanjo has never apologized nor taken responsibilities for the ills his administration has caused to Nigeria, but instead he opted to create more problems to the system. It is time for all Nigerians to wake up and stop falling into the traps of destruction setup by people like Obasanjo and his cohorts.
The statement stressed that Nigeria belongs to us all, and Nigerians should not allow him to dictate our thinking or how we should respond to some our unfortunate situations which they deliberately created for us.
