…says ex-president tried to instigate interim arrangement again
Q. Many people believe that this recently held general election fell below par in terms of the expectations of stakeholders who had hoped for a perfect process, do you agree with those who knocked the poll?
A. The election has been very credible and I will tell you why. This idea of hacking into the mainframe of INEC’s server was taken with levity by those who tried. That didn’t start today and I am very happy with INEC’s chairman for doing all he could to ensure that he protected the integrity of the process. He knew what was being done and he decided to act accordingly. INEC didn’t alter anything with regards to the outcome of the poll. Anyone who feels his vote didn’t count should go to the portal now to look at the results and compare it with what was obtained at his polling booth. I think it would be uncharitable for anyone to devalue INEC with regards to this election. It wasn’t too perfect because no election is very perfect anywhere in the world but I think it is very credible. For instance, the Russians hacked into U.S. elections. If you are looking for a perfect election, you won’t get it but we must keep trying. The reason INEC failed to upload was because people were waiting to hack into the mainframe. I am happy for Mahmood (Yakubu). I don’t think it would be very charitable for anyone to devalue INEC based on this election. I am not also saying that it was perfect though. I applaud Mahmood for what he has done with this election.
Q. But your position tallies with that of your former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who canvassed that all the issues around the election are resolved before the winner is announced. Could you tell us in specific terms, where you differ from him?
A. Obasanjo is being ingenious. We have travelled this road before. If I’m to tell you, he was the one who engineered the last one. If he likes, let him take me to court. I will remind him that some people were still alive when trouble started in AD. When we went to bury the father of our late friend, Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua, in Katsina, we flew back, (from Katsina) with him (Obasanjo) after which he went back to Abuja. We met in a guest house with some people to prepare some papers with the likes of late Chief Anthony Anenih and some other people that I don’t want to name, so as not to embarrass them. They prepared a document calling for the establishment of an Interim National Government during the heat of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election. They took it to Ibrahim (Babangida). They were on his (Babangida’s) throat urging him to sign the document to establish the Interim Government. I saw his signature and I saw the comments that he made. They (Obasanjo and others) now began to state that the elections will not stay.
Q. The question is who are the people that brought the Interim National Government to the country?
Who are those who recruited other people like judges to scuttle the process to pave the way for the establishment of the Interim National Government?
A. It is unfortunate that we worked for so many years after then before we were able to get our mojo back as a country, now you are back trying to do what you did before. The same man is not even grateful to God that he is alive and he is working to truncate the will of about 200million people. No! This won’t happen.
Q. In specific terms, are you accusing Chief Obasanjo of imposing the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government on the country?
A. It (ING) was the idea of Obasanjo. He even wanted to head it. It was Ibrahim who felt that Obasanjo shouldn’t head it and when his schemes failed, he had to recruit and draft late Chief Shonekan to head the interim government. He didn’t even allow the late Chief Shonekan to breathe as the leader of the government. That was what happened. He needs to deny this claim before he dies. He should deny my claims before he dies.
Q. Why do you think Obasanjo seems to be against the emergence of any of his Yoruba kin in any electoral contest?
A. There have been claims that he doesn’t have any form of roots in Yorubaland. If he feels otherwise, he needs to go and take a DNA test to ascertain if he is truly a Yorubaman and if not so, he needs to go back to his kith and kin in other areas. I don’t think Obasanjo is comfortable with his Yoruba people at all. I’m saying this because each time we have this kind of disaster, he is always at the heart of things, whether it was with late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, or Moshood Abiola and now Bola Tinubu.
Curled from newtelegraphng.com Mar 4, 2023 7:55 AM
