Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has once again bemoaned the former president Olusegun Obasanjo for endorsing the Labour Party flagbearer, Peter Obi, for president.
Atiku pointed out that Obasanjo is presently posturing as Nigeria’s electoral janitor when he is not the ‘custodian’ of the key to Aso Rock.
He reminded the former president not to forget that power belongs to God, and God rules in the affairs of men.
Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi on New Year day had sparked mixed reactions, with the other major presidential candidates and their political party rejecting it.
Hitting Obasanjo harder, Atiku who spoke through the director, Public Affairs, of the PDP campaign management committee, Senator Dino Melaye, said Obasanjo refused to endorse him despite serving as his vice president because he insisted that his loyalty as vice is to the constitution and not to the president.
In a statement titled, ‘Atiku’s God does not live under the rock (Abeokuta), Melaye said since Obasanjo wrote his controversial book, ‘My Command’, there are telling indicators to point to the fact that he has tried to live in the reality of being in charge always.
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He noted: ‘To be sure, he (Obasanjo) has tried to impress as the facilitator of succeeding presidents of Nigeria. Ironically, this attitude has grouped him among those euphemistically tagged ‘Owners of Nigeria’. His recent advisory on the February 25 election is another testimony to his misconception of being an electoral janitor who can padlock and unlock Nigeria’s electoral fortune at will.
‘In the period preceding the 2015 elections, Obasanjo, in his characteristic janitorial expedition, aligned with the marketers of false change. He even tore the membership card of the Party that gave him the opportunity to be President of Nigeria for 8 years. He also appeared in photo opportunities with Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
‘A few months after Buhari’s election, Obasanjo realised that he had misled himself and many Nigerians. He tried to fight back in 2019, but by then, Buhari had designed some unorthodox ways to remain in power.’
Melaye added that with about 50 days to the 2023 election, Obasanjo is out again as the ‘custodian’ of the key to Aso rock, endorsing a candidate whose main office would be in Abeokuta with the annex office in Abuja.
He continued: ‘It is hypocritical and politically heretical to appeal to Nigerian youths to take their turn by supporting a candidate who is far older than many other young Flagbearers.
‘This is the facade in Obasanjo’s postulation. Neither Nigerian youths nor other discerning electorates are deceived anymore. They have taken the full grasp of JOB 32:9 (CSB): ‘It is not [only] the old who are wise or the elderly who understand how to judge.’
‘It is not surprising that Obasanjo is not supporting His Excellency Atiku Abubakar in this election. If the permutation of the electoral janitors is to be the thread to direct the needle where it should go, Atiku surely does not fit that configuration. One of the unpardonable ‘sins’ that Atiku probably committed while working with Obasanjo was the assertion of his constitutional independence, when he declared that the loyalty of the holder of the office of the Vice is to the Constitution and not to the President. Atiku will be loyal to Nigeria, but he will not worship at the altar of political deities.
‘The good side of Obasanjo’s self-serving electoral sermon is the advance warning that Peter Obi is being supported to serve as an errand boy to Obasanjo. Nigerians should not forget that Obasanjo had been accused of making the running of his domestic kitchen the highest office he gave to a South Easterner during his tenure. He is, therefore, on another exploitative voyage.
He added that the 2023 election would be a revelation of electoral consciousness, electoral independence and electoral advancement.
He said those who seek to keep Nigerians in electoral hypnotism will wake up to discover that Nigerians have moved beyond the lock and key democracy, where janitors operate as if they are in the needle and thread race that were athletic events in post-colonial Nigeria.