Leave Nigeria alone, Ebute Counsels Obasanjo

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One time  Senate President and Pro-Chancellor/Chairman, National Open University of Nigeria, (NOUN) Senator Ameh Ebute has said with the monumental failure witnessed during the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration coupled with the bad blood he has generated against the present administration, it is better for him, (Obasanjo) to leave Nigeria alone.

 
“Sir, with all your failures, self- righteousness, hypocrisy and other shenanigan, Nigeria has left you alone. Please baba, leave Nigeria alone”, he stressed.

 
Ebute said he was responding to last week's statements credited to Chief Obasanjo  where he (Obasanjo) referred to the PDP gesture towards him as a “cacophony of appeals and pleadings”. Obasanjo also stated in the report that one of the reasons why he was angry with the party is the fact that a certain drug baron was made the leader of the People's Democratic Party in your Zone which is understood to be the South West Geo-political Zone. 

 
“It will appear sir, that the post 2011 election squabbles when you characteristically decided to selfishly appropriate political appointments slots given to Ogun state to the exclusion of your former allies was the only reason why you so much want Prince Kashamu excommunicated by the PDP leadership and not the “honor and integrity” mantra you have put forward in your public posturing”, Ebute maintained.

 
Ebute in the 5 page open letter to Chief Obasanjo which was made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday said “ it amazes some of us that a person who had been so favored by God and man should refuse to heed the simple words of the elders that those who have had the fortune of having their palm kernel cracked for them by some benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.

 
He wondered while Obasanjo who had an unusual opportunity of making impacts in these areas for three years as a Military ruler and then eight years as a civilian President either forgot that posterity would call him to account as the longest serving leader this country has ever had or simply neglected to “do the needful” but is now in the habit of advising others to do.

 
Citing examples of monumental failures occasioned against the country while the former leader held sway, Ebute insisted that on so many occasions, he had the goodwill to stabilize the polity from the Obsanjo undemocratic decisions.

 
“You will recall that the National Assembly, because of your unrelenting and undemocratic actions embarked on a process of impeaching you. It took the intervention of my humble self and few of other compatriots to save you and keep our nascent democracy on course. For this, you personally thanked me in writing!”, Ebute hinted.   

 He posed several questions to Obasanjo thus; “Weren't the Halliburton and Siemens scandals part of your legacies to the Nations corruption index?  Are you aware that the National ID card project which resulted in the Siemens scandal has been successfully undertaken by the Jonathan administration without any form of under-hand dealings? Didn't you refuse all pleas to sign the Freedom of Information Bill into law? Which of the poverty and human development indices recorded any improvement while you held sway as Nigerian President for eight years?”

 
On the poor state of infrastructure in the country, Ebute said Obasanjo should equally be held responsible.

 
“Talking about infrastructure, one may want to ask why critical roads like the Benin-Ore road; Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; Kano-Maiduguri road; the East West Road and even your Otta-Abeokuta dual carriage were recklessly abandoned and could not be fixed in all your eight years as President despite having more oil money from the Petroleum Ministry over which you personally superintended as President and oil Minister. Why should a President double as the Petroleum Minister of a country?”

 
“You neither made plans whatsoever to evacuate the turbines from the ports, nor made provisions for the road infrastructural upgrade to transport them to the desired locations. No land was acquired for the installation of the imported turbines neither was a right of way for execution of the project acquired. Also, you made no effort to align the gas national gas pipeline network with the locations of the turbines. The resultant effect of this shoddy approach to National development was an unmitigated disaster and a colossal loss of a whopping sum of nearly 16 billion dollars as many of these turbines rotted away at the ports until the intervention of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration”.

 
He equally heaps the blames on Obasanjo state as accounting for the huge problem in the agriculture sector that the Goodluck Jonathan administration inherited.

 
“Prior to your emergence as President and considering your antecedents as a farmer, one would have expected that you would use your position to reduce Nigeria's huge food import bills, boost food production and help reduce poverty in Nigeria. Alas, you government did absolutely nothing in this critical sector! Rather, you introduced policies that impoverished farmers and increased poverty, hunger and starvation among the populace”.

 
The letter also asked Obasanjo to explain why as one of the African leaders that came up with the idea of the Great Green wall from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, he did nothing to implement the policy in Nigeria  in the Northern part of the country.

 
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