Whether it is an underhand but calculated attempt at shoring the fortunes of NIPOST, the nation’s premier postal agency or the sign of enhanced literary prowess amongst the ruling class or pure political mudslinging ahead of the make or mar 2015 elections, no one can correctly guess. However the fact now is that President Goodluck Jonathan has replied the letter written to him by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The President, in his personal response to the December 2, 2013 letter to him from the former president released by his media team, accused his one time political benefactor of hypocrisy; asserting that Obasanjo was rather guilty of several of the allegations raised. He also accused Chief Obasanjo of deceitfully manipulating facts and figures to call to question his credibility, vowing that he would not for any reason mortgage a bright future for the country.
Dr. Jonathan in debunking the allegations of having failed in maintaining security reminded Obasanjo that the Boko Haram insurgency started under his watch in 2002 and that the first major case of kidnapping for money was also in 2006 during Obasanjo’s stewardship.
President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo
President Jonathan also challenged Obasanjo to swear with the bible if he believed in the allegation that the administration was training snipers to trail political opponents, just as he said that retractions by Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi have debunked the allegation of squandering oil receipts.
Responding to the allegation of corruption leveled against the present administration, Dr. Jonathan poked at Obasanjo citing the Halliburton and Siemens scandals which happened under his brief, and the mockery of his military administration by his townsman, the music legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. He thus challenged Obasanjo to cite verifiable cases corruption against the present administration.
Dr. Jonathan also denied the allegations of betraying the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP charging that it was certainly not him that made the PDP to lose Obasanjo’s home state, Ogun State to the opposition in 2011.
President Jonathan who in the letter acknowledged Obasanjo’s role in his political enthronement and called him Baba five times, nevertheless said he was forced to respond openly based on what he described as Obasanjo’s legendary role in pulling down all his successors since he was Head of State in the seventies.
Follow the link below for the full text of President Goodluck Jonathan’s letter dated December 20, 2013:
