Probe Obasanjo, We don’t Want Him Around You – Associates Tell Buhari

Political associates of Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari have asked him to extend his ongoing probe to the administration of former President Oluse­gun Obasanjo.
They are not also comfort­able with Obasanjo’s increasing romance with the president and have therefore initiated moves to scuttle Obasanjo’s perceived hijack of the Buhari Presidency.
Investigation by The AU­THORITY revealed that the pres­ident’s allies are not happy with Obasanjo’s growing closeness to Buhari, considering that he ei­ther caused or contributed large­ly to most of the problems facing the country.


According to them, even though Obasanjo claimed that he was fighting corruption dur­ing his eight-year tenure, the cur­rent rot in the polity was largely caused by him.
Consequently, they have ap­pealed to Buhari to distance him­self from Obasanjo and extend the current probe to his administra­tion’s privatisation exercise and funding of power projects.
A top member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) disclosed the growing discomfort in the party over Obasanjo’s per­ceived influence on President Bu­hari to The AUTHORITY.
Between 1976 and 1979, Bu­hari served as Secretary (Minis­ter) of Petroleum Resources in a military regime headed by Oba­sanjo. Both men are retired Gen­erals.
The AUTHORITY checks re­vealed that top APC leaders are worried that aside the fact that both men are Army Generals, Obasanjo’s “last minute” support for Buhari in the build-up to the last general elections may work in favour of Obasanjo.
Said the chieftain: “We don’t want Obasanjo near President Buhari. The same Obasanjo who on three occasions stopped Buha­ri from becoming president, now wants to play political godfather,” exclaiming, “God forbid!”
The AUTHORITY gathered that APC chieftains opposed to Obasanjo’s return to political reckoning have commissioned agents to unearth documents on financial transactions capable of embarrassing the former presi­dent.
The anti-Obasanjo elements, it was also gathered, have been piling pressure on Buhari to ex­tend his probe of previous admin­istrations to May 1999 when Oba­sanjo took over as president.
In the reckoning of the anti-Obasanjo elements in APC, an in­quest into the tenure of the for­mer president would “make all the allegations against the Good­luck Jonathan presidency pale into insignificance.”
Argued one of the APC chief­tains: “I don’t understand what all the noise about probing Jonathan is about. To me, it is like remov­ing the speck from our eyes while ignoring the log called Obasanjo.
“Obasanjo is the reason Ni­geria is in a mess today, not Jon­athan. Were Jonathan like Oba­sanjo we wouldn’t have the kind of credible election that ushered Buhari in as president. Obasanjo, who denied Buhari the presiden­cy thrice is now trying to posture as the man who made us. This we reject in its totality,” submitted the APC chieftain.
Another APC leader irked by Obasanjo’s romance with Buhari advised the president to be wary of his predecessor.
He said: “Obasanjo’s stock-in-trade is to install puppets. The moment the puppet begins to have a life of his own, Obasan­jo picks up a fight. We saw this happen between him and the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, then, Goodluck Jonathan.”
According to the party chief­tain, it was unfair to continue to hound former president Good­luck Jonathan whilst treating Obasanjo like a sacred cow.
He queried: “How much did Obasanjo spend on power? And how many megawatts did that add to the national grid? How much did he spend on educa­tion, roads, security, water sup­ply and the rest?
“Had Obasanjo played his part well, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and then Jonathan would have found a firm foundation to build on. As far as we are concerned, the failure by Obasanjo to lay a solid founda­tion is the reason we are suffering today, so he (Obasanjo) should be made to account for his steward­ship,” the party chieftain declared