Presidency, APC blast Obasanjo for describing Buhari as ‘Another Abacha’ in new letter

The presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday simultaneously reacted to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Obasanjo in the letter titled ‘For the record: Points of concern and action,’ dissipated the Buhari government; a government he vigorously supported to oust former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

Obasanjo accused the Buhari government of returning Nigeria back to the era of military dictator, Sani Abacha who ruled the country ruthlessly without minding whose ox was gored.

The APC in a response to the former president’s accusation said he (Obasanjo) was being haunted by his past when elections were rigged and government institutions were denied independence.

The National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, stated this at a media interaction in Abuja on Sunday.

He said, “For eight years of President Obasanjo, all the elections he held…in fact  government policies were determined by whatever mood he found himself. All the institutions of government were heavily influenced by Obasanjo. What he did for those eight years is what is haunting him. He cannot imagine it is possible for a government to allow INEC the statutory independence that it has.”

Onilu said elections conducted under the APC government so far were credible. He said the APC should be commended for allowing institutions to perform their duties without interference.

In a similar vein, the Presidency dismissed  issues raised by Obasanjo, alleging that security crises and impunity were rife under the ex-President’s administration between 1999 and 2007.

The Special Adviser to the President Muhammadu on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, while featuring on Sunday Politics, a news and current affairs programme of Channels Television, said thousands of lives were lost under the administration of Obasanjo.

Responding to Obasanjo’s allegation that Buhari and the APC planned to rig the general elections,  Adesina said, “Imagine that kind of allegation coming from somebody who told us in 2007 that the election would be a ‘do-or-die affair.  If somebody had said the election would be a ‘do-or- die’ affair and it was ‘do- or- die’ affair and the beneficiary of that election came out to say that the election that brought him to power was marred; now for that person to allege that elections were not going to be free and fair, were they free and fair when he conducted his own?”

On the allegation that the security crisis in the country was deteriorating, Adesina said, “Under Obasanjo was when we had the Odi massacre; under him was when we had the Zaki Biam massacre; under him there were lots of clashes involving the OPC and other ethnic groups, there were Shari’ah riots under him, and thousands of lives were lost even under his administration.”

Also, in a statement by another media aide to Buhari, Garba Shehu, the Presidency said Obasanjo needed “a good doctor for good treatment and to say to him, “Get well soon.”

He added, “This language of his 16-page letter, likening President Buhari to General Sani Abacha, a man he dreaded and the one who jailed him under military laws is most unfitting from a former President of Nigeria.

“The claim that President Buhari has put in place rigging machinery is both outlandish and outrageous. We are unable to get the words to describe a 90-year old liar, except to say that by the publication of this tissue of lies against the President, he Obasanjo, not the President will fall from everyone’s esteem.”