Inside Obasanjo’s epic war with PDP

The cold war between ex-president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan worsened last weekend when in a show of anger in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Obasanjo renounced his membership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the presence of ward party leaders and key members. He coloured the action by instructing a […]

The cold war between ex-president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan worsened last weekend when in a show of anger in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Obasanjo renounced his membership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the presence of ward party leaders and key members. He coloured the action by instructing a political ally, Alhaji Usman Oladunjoye to tear his PDP membership card, and act that symbolized the complete severance of the former leader from his membership of the party after 16 years.
The former president’s act may signal an eventual disintegration of the largest party in Africa, according to analysts, but that still depends on the outcome of the rescheduled elections. As it is, the party’s life-support is its control of the presidency and all the apparatus that go with the office, which it is expected to deploy come March 28, the brand new, controversial Election Day. Already, party strategists have retreated to the drawing board to weigh options, one of which is the party leadership begging Obasanjo not to completely shelve his father-of-the-party status at this critical stage. “At least let his shadow hang around the umbrella until after the elections,” a party source told Weekly Trust.
Based on the development, the president according to the source, was advised to compel his attack dogs to sheathe their swords. “Governor Sule Lamido, who is believed to have the former president’s ear was mandated to evolve a reconciliatory strategy,” he disclosed. Lamido had said last week that Obasanjo remained the father of all, as Jonathan and all the governors were creations of the ex-president.
Lamido and the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, also met in Abuja on Wednesday on the possibility of convincing the former president to return to the party. But an aide of Obasanjo’s it was too little, too late. “[Obasanjo] has said all that is needed to say on the matter. The symbolic act of card-tearing ended the long romance. They blew their chances and I don’t think anything can be done about that,” he told Weekly Trust.
 It was learnt that, already, governors elected on the platform of the PDP who are loyal to the former president have met in three locations in the southwest and Abuja since their boss announced his exit. An APC stalwart close to the former president who had earlier defected along with some governors from the PDP, told Weekly Trust that within the next two weeks, governors loyal to Obasanjo in the PDP will defect, too. “Yes, they’ve been meeting and we will shake this country soon. The children will take a cue from their father,” he said. The source said even key personalities supposedly close to Jonathan will soon disappoint, ahead of the elections.
Insiders say although Obasanjo has picked many a quarrel with political opponents and even allies in the past, his most sustained antagonism is against President Jonathan. From his body language and action, the former leader appears to unrepentantly resent the manner Nigeria is currently administered under the current presidency, frequently citing elevation of corruption to official heights and the collapse of the economy. Obasanjo has not only questioned the competence and strength of character of Jonathan recently, but equally feels betrayed on many fronts.
Weekly Trust gathered that Obasanjo’s war with the PDP actually started in 2012. Reportedly, a clause in the party’s constitution whose amendment he brought about on the eve of his exit from office, reserved the seat of PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) chairmanship for only former presidents on the party’s platform. By the new provision, and when he left office in 2007, Chief Tony Anenih who hitherto occupied the seat was dislodged and he took over.
But about three years later and under a Jonathan Acting Presidency and PDP leadership in 2009, the same clause was reviewed. The review threw the seat open for contest by all. OBJ who showed interest in taking another term of five years, felt there were grand designs to humiliate him during the BoT ballot, especially as the earlier ousted Anenih, also indicated overt interest in re-occupying the seat.
 Much as the coast remained unclear, OBJ threw in the towel by resigning his BoT chairmanship before the expiration of his five-year tenure. Anenih’s emergence as his successor, a position he currently holds, attested to his suspicion.
However, despite this crisis, Obasanjo was at the forefront of talks to convince most sections of the country that were indifferent to Jonathan’s candidature. He insisted that zoning in the PDP was still alive, but pleaded with his aggrieved party members and Nigerians to properly interpret the circumstances that threw up the Jonathan presidency.
Nevertheless, OBJ maintained studied silence in the first two years, after Jonathan’s election in 2011, but watched with keen interest developments in the ruling PDP.  He was perplexed that Jonathan rooted out all his loyalists from the party’s structure from National to Ward levels. Then in December 2013, Obasanjo broke his silence in a dramatic way, when he wrote an open letter to Jonathan alleging a litany of wrongdoings against the president. The opening lines of the letter conveyed the feelings of a man pained and disgusted with the turn of events.
The vitriol-laden letter complained about a crisis-ridden PDP, as he decried the manner it has degenerated; Jonathan’s unuttered, but die-hard interest in re-contesting the 2015 presidency, in violation of earlier pledges to the contrary and lamentations of poor handling of insecurity. Throughout 2014, Obasanjo stepped up his scrutiny of the Jonathan presidency, particularly when his interest in contesting the 2015 presidency became pronounced. For instance, on August 24, 2014, he likened Jonathan’s regime to that of the late military dictator, General Sani Abacha.
As Obasanjo’s criticism of Jonathan’s administration became fiercer, he shunned PDP affairs and declined from attending Jonathan’s formal declaration to seek re-election in Abuja in November 2014 and no explanation was offered for his absence. Also, during the Ake Book Festival in Abeokuta, Obasanjo said Jonathan’s performance is below average. “I will not accept responsibility for his performance,” he told guests. He has on several public platforms criticised Jonathan and even the National Assembly for promoting poor governance and corruption.
Then notably, an Abuja high court stopped the publication of the retired general’s three-volume memoirs, titled ‘My Watch’. The book, which recounts Obasanjo’s eight years in power between 1999 and 2007, contains uncomplimentary remarks about a former political associate called Buruji Kashamu, whom Obasanjo has been engaged in a public fall-out with. Kashamu is accused of drug pushing and recently lost a case in the US seeking to stop his trial, which has been on for years. Kashamu, a chieftain of the PDP, denied the allegations, saying even Obasanjo allowed state agencies to testify on his behalf in a UK court to clear his name when he was president.
Obasanjo’s biography, believed to be a scathing tell-all, takes many major swipes at the management of the PDP under Jonathan’s watch and if it is ever released to mainstream Nigerian buyers – it is available on the iTunes store – then it will probably provide more fuel to the fiery feuds the former leader has with many former friends and associates.