Why Obasanjo should not be trusted

This was a man that had politically shortchanged the north so badly that its political future is uncertain. Northern opposition to Jonathan is like fighting the effects of a disease rather than its underlying cause.The abandonment of zoning arrangement in May 2010 after the unfortunate death of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua was the beginning of […]

This was a man that had politically shortchanged the north so badly that its political future is uncertain. Northern opposition to Jonathan is like fighting the effects of a disease rather than its underlying cause.
The abandonment of zoning arrangement in May 2010 after the unfortunate death of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua was the beginning of the current sorry political fate of the north. When Yar’adua died, Obasanjo said zoning was not good because it “sacrifices merit,” despite the fact that it was the same arrangement that gave him the opportunity to serve for eight years as President.
Despite completing his eight years tenure, he attempted a tenure elongation beyond his constitutional term limit. The north became a formidable source of the opposition to his third term ambition. And for that reason, he vowed to punish the north for its recalcitrance. In line with his vindictive agenda, he imposed power shift to the north in 2007 on his own terms.
He deliberately brought the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua and imposed him as the Presidential candidate of the PDP in 2007, despite his obvious health challenges. And Obasanjo’s objective was to accelerate the shift of political power back to the south within the shortest space of time. He also vowed to punish the north politically and economically and he had achieved both. When he imposed Umaru Musa Yar’adua, the northern political establishment timorously watched on, with nobody daring to challenge the former President. Our so-called northern leaders retreated to their holes like timid rats.
Wasn’t it Obasanjo that imposed both Umaru Yar’adua and Jonathan against the wishes of the PDP leaders? Why didn’t northern leaders resist the imposition of Yar’adua, which was Obasanjo’s card for bringing about the shortest northern political control of power? Northern leaders are cowards and their fear of the EFCC largely forced them to accept Obasanjo’s impositions without protest. Apart from Kano, Sokoto and Niger States, which northern state Governor and his delegates voted for the northern consensus candidate, Atiku Abubakar?
Obasanjo is the root of the current political fate of the north and fighting President Jonathan is like chasing shadows. Our leaders are cowards who cannot stand for their principles and convictions because they were scared of Obasanjo’s EFCC Rottweiler. Did Murtala Nyako, Sule Lamido, Isa Yuguda and other northern Governors support Atiku Abubakar at the PDP Presidential primaries in December 2010, held at the Eagle Square? Most of them lent their hands to the destruction of zoning, despite the fact that Obasanjo and Jonathan were beneficiaries of the same power sharing arrangement.
Our northern leaders should not be fooled by Obasanjo’s letter to President Jonathan and delude themselves into believing that he loves them. He is now seeking the sympathy of northern leaders because President Jonathan has decided to be his own man just like Umaru Yar’adua.
Former President Obasanjo is a dangerous and treacherous manipulator. It is the height of naivety for northern leaders to seek political security in the hands of Obasanjo, whose political influence in the southwest has been virtually obliterated by Bola Ahmed Tinubu of ACN (now APC). He is responsible for putting the north into its present sorry political fate.  He aided and abetted the abandonment of zoning. Therefore, we should not think that because he is fighting President Jonathan, he loves us any better. As someone brilliantly argued, Obasanjo is behaving like someone who sold a goat and refused to release the rope. He had attempted to control both Yar’adua and Jonathan but failed. Therefore, the northern masses should not allow themselves to be deceived by these cowardly and so-called northern leaders who are chasing shadows by fighting Jonathan instead of the man that was the genesis of the political mess the north is in today. Was it not Obasanjo that has reduced the north to the status of a political orphan?
Kaugama, a former Special Media Aide to former Governor Saminu Turaki, wrote in from No 104, Hadejia Road Kano.