Six years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office, the Federal Government led by President Goodluck Jonathan might begin a probe his tenure.
The move by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to make Obasanjo account for his conduct in office from 1999 to 2007 may be connected with the former leader’s constant criticisms of the current regime’s performance in the last two years.
Only on Wednesday during the Democracy Day celebration, Obasanjo was absent at the ceremony in Abuja. Instead, he was in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, where he declared that Governor Sule Lamido could do what Jonathan had failed to do as a leader since he was elected.
It is also been learnt that, as part of efforts to ensure that Jonathan secure the PDP presidential ticket in 2015, he is set to show Nigerians that the hands of his sworn critics are, after all, not clean, with Obasanjo and his cronies being atop the list.
Despite denials to the contrary by a presidency official, it has been gathered that the resolve to probe Obasanjo is very strong.
It was also learnt that Obasanjo’s endorsement of Governor Lamido for the next presidential race was considered as an open confrontation with the government and “one attack too many”.
Some of Obasanjo’s loyalists, who commented on the issue last night, dismissed it, saying that Aso Rock knows that the former president has nothing to hide.
Also, top members of the PDP caucus in the south-west ruled out the possibility of the presidency embarking on such “fruitless adventure”.
Obasanjo and the incumbent President Jonathan have been having a running battle for the control of the soul of the PDP in recent times, with the Abeokuta-born soldier-turned-politician casting aspersions on the leadership style of Jonathan.
A member of the dissolved Olusegun Oni-led zonal executive committee of the PDP in the south-west said since Jonathan had not declared his intention to seek re-election it was not likely that he would be wasting his time chasing perceived enemies.
He stated that if the move was true it would be counter-productive because neither the president nor the PDP would benefit from it.
“Even though nothing like that has come to our notice, the president has not told us so. I know the president won’t do such a thing; it will be counter-productive to the interest of the party in the south -west and even to the re-election ambition of the president in 2015,” he said.
In another development, factional leader of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, on Friday, led other governors loyal to his leadership to a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in State House, Abuja, where he insisted that that he is the duly elected chairman of the body.
After the meeting, held behind closed doors, Jang told State House correspondents that there was no faction in NGF as the forum led by him was the only one recognised in the country.
With him at the meeting were Governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Peter Obi (Anambra), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Theodore Orji (Abia), Ramallan Yero (Kaduna), and Ibrahim Dakwambo (Gombe).
Others are Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Idris Wada (Kogi), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Garba Umar (Taraba) and the deputy governor of Benue State, Steven Lawani.
Jang said that he led the team of governors in his capacity as their chairman to congratulate the president on his mid-term achievements and to consult with him on national issues.
He insisted that the interaction with the journalists must be short because some of them (the governors) were in a hurry to attend the juma’at service.
“We have met with Mr President with me leading a team of governors from the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to congratulate Mr President and to consult with him on very serious national issues, you know, the security problem in the country and what we need to do in the coming two years to ensure that democracy stabilises and development continues in the country,” he said.
Asked if the issue of factions of the NGF formed part of the meeting, Jang said, “There is no fictionalisation of the NGF. The NGF is one and I am the chairman of the NGF.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency has apparently thrown its weight behind Jang’s faction of the NGF following his emergence from the controversial election where he was said to have garnered 16 votes against Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s 19 votes.
However, Jang argued that he had been chosen as the consensus candidate before a flawed election was conducted.
Speaking at a dinner organised to celebrate the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its members in the State House Banquet Hall on Thursday night, the Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak, said Jang was the only recognised chairman of the NGF.
Gulak had saluted as “the Governor of Plateau State and chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, David Jonah Jang, I greet you,” attracting a rousing applause from the PDP chieftains gathered at the occasion.
He also boasted that the attempt at merging by the “APC (All Progressive Congress) is dead on arrival, if it ever arrives,” adding, “We are committed to the administration of President Jonathan. It is the best thing to happen to Nigeria. The railways are working, power is improving. Democracy is improving under the PDP and we will never relinquish power. It won’t happen in our lifetime.”
Also speaking at the banquet, the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, described as embarrassing, a situation where the NGF had two chairmen and both of them from the PDP stock.
He, therefore, called for urgent action to correct the anomaly and retain the support of Nigerians who, he observed, would not be happy with a divided PDP.
In his remarks to correspondents after the dinner, the chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum and Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill AKpabio, challenged the pro-Amaechi governors to release the complete three-hour- video of the NGF election rather than the 10-minute clip they had circulated in the social media.
Present at the dinner were chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; Senate President, David Mark; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; governors of of Anambra, Kogi, Bauchi, Abia, Katsina, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Gombe Delta and Taraba states, while Benue and Niger were represented by their deputy governors, Stephen Lawani and Musa Ibeto.