Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday lifted the veil on the under the table power game that threw up Muhammadu Buhari as the president of Nigeria.
Obasanjo, at a reception held in his honour at the Government House, Yola, Taraba State, said that he and four other eminent Nigerians brought President Muhammadu Buhari to salvage Nigeria from its current challenges.
Although it had never been explicitly stated many a Nigerian had suspected a power conspiracy in the way different sections of the country were galvanised against the former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Unfortunately, the post of the president has been arranged in Nigeria going back to the Shehu Shagari era, which in its casts a parlour of doubt on whether Nigeria actually practices through democracy.
It will be recalled that the emergence of MKO Abiola outside the pick of the power overlords in the 1993 polls resulted in the nullification of the election.
According to Obasanjo they took the decision edge out Jonathan when they felt that the country stood at a crossroads.
He said, “Three or four other of us from different part of the country got together and said to ourselves what do we do
“We said what is the problem with us and why are we still not growing. We got talking and knew we needed to do something.
“What do we need to deal with for this Nigeria of ours to become what God has created it to be. A land flowing with milk and honey, that is the intention of God for creating Nigeria.”
In his opinion, Buhari has not disappointed the country so far.
He said, “So far, Buhari has not disappointed us. I trust him, he will not fail Nigerians. I know he will overcome the challenges the country is currently facing.”
The former president however cautioned that Nigeria needed to get its acts right in the area of politics, governance and leadership for the country to develop.
On his decision to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, the elder statesman said it was final.
Obasanjo relinquished his post as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of PDP, when it became obvious that he could control the machinery of the party to dictate the direction he wanted it to go.
He said that having drawn the curtain on his membership of the PDP, there is no coming back.
Obasanjo said, “In the part of the country where I come from, there is a saying that you cannot say ‘good night’ and come back to say ‘good evening’ in the same place.
“So for me, it is good night for the PDP and that is all.”
