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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his yet-to-be-released three-part memoirs titled My Watch, accused late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adau of deceiving him about how serious his health issues were before he became the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007. Obasanjo surprisingly helped Yar’Adua to pick PDP’s ticket but after his election, Yar’Adua frequently fell ill and eventually died in May 2010, paving the way for Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to become president. However, Obasanjo was accused of installing a terminally ill northerner as president in order to return power to the south through the backdoor in no time. In a chapter titled “To be or Not to be: Jonathan”, Obasanjo said Yar’Adau gave him the impression that he had overcome his health challenges and did not act responsibly when he eventually became terminally ill. In portions of the book seen in advance by TheCable, Obasanjo wrote: “As can be expected, I was heavily involved in the transition and exit process that saw me leaving office for my successor, Umaru Yar’Adua, as recounted in Chapter Thirty-seven, the ninth chapter of the second volume of this book. The unprepared and unplanned transition from Yar’Adua to Jonathan was a more difficult exercise in some respects. One reason was the ‘cloak and dagger’ manner in which Yar’Adua’s illness was handled. “The illness of a President cannot be regarded as private. His health has implications for the security and wellbeing of the nation. For the president and those around him to have attempted strenuously to keep the fact of the severity of his illness from public smacks of ignorance of the enormity of what the job entails and the level of provinciality of their understanding, attitude, and approach. “I remember that in 1978 or 1979 Chief Awolowo visited me while I was military head of state and shared with me how he would always stay at home to attend to the work at hand and only make a private visit to the UK once a year for health reasons if he became president of Nigeria. I made it clear to the chief that once he became president of Nigeria, he could have no private visit to anywhere as such. Wherever he would be, he would be on duty, and the totality of his life would be public. I jokingly added that the only privacy he might lay claim to would be when he was at home with Mama Chief H.I.D., and that even then his security staff would be on twenty-four-hour dut
Nearly a year after his daughter, Iyabo, wrote a well-publicised open letter to him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has replied her, alleging that she was induced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to write the stinker. In portions of his latest memoirs, My Watch, seen in advance by TheCable, Obasanjo said he had been warned that “this administration” was attempting to induce two of his daughters to do a “dirty job” and that he warned both of them against it. Obasanjo said Iyabo succumbed to the advances because of “her character” and “the influence of her mother” – who is the retired general’s first wife. In her letter, Iyabo, a former commissioner in Ogun state and former senator, recounted Obasanjo’s failings as a father and questioned his moral right to criticise others. “This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs,” she wrote. Iyabo_Obasanjo-2-398×600 Iyabo Click here to read Iyabo Obasanjo’s open letter to her father Obasanjo had written a highly critical letter to Jonathan titled “Before It Is Too Late” in which he raised issues about insecurity and corruption in the country. He wrote: “You must hold yourself most significantly responsible for what happens or fails to happen in Nigeria and in any case, most others will hold you responsible and God who put you there will surely hold you responsible and accountable.” Obasanjo further repeated an allegation that Jonathan was training snipers to kill his political opponents. Click here to read Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan He had remained silent since Iyabo’s open letter to him was published in the medai, but has now responded in volume one of the three-volume memoirs. Obasanjo wrote: “I got a warning that this administration was attempting to induce two of my daughters, including Iyabo, to do a dirty job. I warned them both against it, but because of her character, the influence of her mother and her attitude, Iyabo succumbed; the other daughter did not. “I was warned about a former minister of finance, who wrote the reply for Jonathan, and about the writer of the letter to which E. K. Clark appended his signature. Iyabo’s letter and the response to it has been treated as a family issue, so that all the members of the family can be equipped with the other side of the story from me for posterity. “If Iyabo was childish and unwise enough to allow herself to be used, no other member of the family should allow himself or herself to be so used. Tolerance and acceptance of others must be practised in the face of any provocation, no matter how vile.” Obasanjo has previously been openly accused of incest and adultery by his son, Gbenga, who sought to divorce his wife alleging that his father was sleeping with her. The former president, meanwhile, said a “cabal” surrounding late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adau framed corruption charges against Iyabo when she was a senator in order to get back at him because of his personal views against them. “My adversaries tried other means to get to me,” he stated. “If Obasanjo could not be cut down to size, they must have thought, what about those close to him, including his daughter? When Senator Iyabo, my daughter, was accused of corruption, I took my time to have a serious interview with her on what exactly had transpired. She briefed me in detail and I was satisfied. “But I did not stop there. I spoke with the Senate President, who also briefed me and assured me that Iyabo had not committed any offence as he had personally looked into the matter. I was again reassured but did not stop there. I talked to another senator, Mrs. Ekaette, who was a member of the health committee of which Iyabo was chairman. Mrs. Ekaette again satisfied me with her explanation. I was advised to talk to President Yar’Adua but I refused to do this, especially as I was told he was expecting me to. Instead, I advised Iyabo to hand the matter over to Chief Afe Babalola, a lawyer and friend, to deal with it through the court process. She was discharged and acquitted by the court. “The fact that my ordeal, and that of my daughter, occurred under the administration of President Yar’Adua, who was brought into power by God through me, did not surprise me. I have always held to a belief that any person who expects commendation, praise, eulogy, or credit from any human being might die a frustrated wretch.” He named some members of the “cabal” as Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi and Baba Kingibe “aided and supported by two governors – Bukola Saraki and James Ibori – for their own personal and selfish reasons”.
cOURTESY Cable
