Obasanjo Has No moral Basis To Criticise Goodluck Jonathan - Edwin Clark Fire Back

THE dust raised by Segun Adeniyi’s “Against the run of play” is still in the air  with elder statesman and former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark

accusing  former President Olusegun Obasanjo of commissioning the author.

Accusing the former President of institutionalising corruption in the polity in the over 5000-word open letter, Clark said Obasanjo has no moral basis to criticise former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Clark was reacting to Obasanjo’s claims in a book written by Adeniyi, a former presidential spokesman to the late Alhaji Musa Yar’Ardua and ThisDay Editorial Board Chairman.

The Ijaw leader said some of the former President’s claims in the book amounted to “a mischievous and malicious tirade against the Ijaws”.

Clark said some of the claims Obasanjo made in his book, “Under My Watch” were the same statements he repeated in Adeniyi’s book.

According to him, it was an arrangement between Obasanjo and Adeniyi to condemn the Ijaws and to incite other Nigerian leaders to disparaging their leaders.

The Ijaw alleged that Obasanjo’s hatred for former Bayelsa State governor, the late Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, was that deep because he was alleged to be Atiku Abubakar’s potential running mate.

Atiku, as Obasanjo’s deputy was reportedly warming up to take a short at the Presidency in 2003.

Dismissing Obasanjo’s claims on why he withheld support for Jonathan’s bid for re-election as untenable, Clark said: “Isn’t it just hypocritical that you mentioned zoning as one of the areas where you hated Jonathan? You are a hypocrite…. a man who only believes in himself and no one else.

“You served Nigeria as a head of state from 1976 to 1979 before you handed over to President Shehu Shagari. Then you came back in 1999 and served for eight years in two terms as an elected President, again you said you wanted a third term and spent Nigerian money in lobbying for a third term. At that time, zoning did not occur to you.”

Clark also debunked Obsanjo’s claim that Jonathan did not effectively deal with insurgency but turned the fight to a looting avenue, and that if Jonathan was allowed to continue in 2015 it would no doubt damage the whole country.

He said: “I think this is very uncharitable and dishonest of you. You should name how Jonathan and his people turned Boko Haram into a money making industry and who are his people that benefited from that industry.

“You are indeed very deceitful and fraudulent in commenting on the Boko Haram. It should be remembered that you yourself went to Maiduguri on two occasions and you did not report to Mr. President the objective of your mission to Maiduguri in the Northeast.

“Instead of reporting the outcome of your mission to Mr. President, you used it as a political score point and personal aggrandisement.

“I’m surprised that you had to advise Mr. President on such a serious matter like Boko Haram at a gathering to mark the 40th anniversary of Pastor Ayo Oristsejafor pastoring.

“It must be observed that Boko Haram came to being in 2002 when you were the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nigeria.

“As usual and for reasons best known to you, you did nothing about it as you did not do anything about Sharia when the governor of Zamfara State Yerima legalised Sharia in his state, and other northern governors were agitating to the introduction of sharia in their states; and you did not see any danger in that in a country which is secular.

“It must be noted that in 2009, when Boko Haram attacked in the north east, Jonathan had not become the president of Nigeria.

“And the period of 2009 to 2010 when Yar A’dua was in Saudi Arabia, Jonathan was not in a position to do anything about Boko Haram because the cabal was in power,” Clark said.

Clark said Obasanjo got wrong in his claims on clannishness and promotion of Ijaw triumphalism, pointing out that the former President’s condemnation of the state pardon granted Alamieyeseigha was because of his hatred for the former governor.

“I remember pleading with you to release DSP Alamieyeseigha because of the surgery he had in his stomach, you snapped back at me in the presence of Dr. Jonathan and Ambassador Igalli.”

According to Clark, Obasanjo has no right to fault and assess past presidents.

“Who are you to assess the performance of President and their government, who are you to dictate to Nigerians who should be President or who should not be President?, “he said.