Barely four days to the presidential election, former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday warned against handing over of power to the military.
Obasanjo argued that such act would undermine Nigeria’s integrity in the comity of nations.
The former president gave this warning when the women’s wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in South West led by Aisha Buhari, the wife of the party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari paid him a visit.
Obasanjo expressed delight that Nigeria had overcome the rumour of Interim National Government, saying that he hoped the country would also survive the rumour of plans to hand over to the military.
He warned that the international community, especially the African Union would not accommodate or recognise any government which emerged without the constitution of the country.
He said Nigeria had the capacity to dictate the pace for other countries in Africa, adding that Nigerians should blame themselves for the current situation in the country.
According to Obasanjo: “I do hope we will get things more right. A lot of rumours are flying around, I think we have gone away from the rumour of Interim Government because that is not in our constitution. I hope we will soon move away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the military is not meant to run affairs of a nation in terms of running the government.
“And the international community will not condone it, particularly African Union (AU) where we have a situation, we have said it and it is part and parcel of the constituting Act of the African Union. Any government that is brought about not on the basis of the constitution will not be accepted, will not be tolerated and will not be a member of the AU until that government is dismantled.
“It shouldn’t be, we are the largest country in Africa, we should be a model, setting examples. we shouldn’t be drawing Africa backward, I hope we will not. I hope at the end of this exercise, we would be where we should be, leading Africa and showing examples for the rest of Africa and indeed the rest of the world.
“We have the goodwill of many people, I watched, last night, President Obama talking about our constitution, I watched our brother from Ghana the current Chairman of ECOWAS talking about our constitution. They are all interested; they all wish us well; should we wish ourselves anything less?”
The former president, who also decried hate campaigns among the political parties, said politicians should focus more on factors that unite Nigeria instead of what divides us.
He stressed that any political party interested in the future of this country should focus its campaigns on the issues of insecurity, economy, unemployment and others.
The former president, however, urged women to play active role for a better Nigeria, warning that they would be the greatest victims if anything should go wrong in the country.
Obasanjo said: “ I am happy to hear directly from you, Mrs. Buhari that the campaign so far, from the assessment, has gone very well. Maybe I should say one or two things about campaign. I do hope that whatever happens at the elections, the one coming this week and the one coming in couple of weeks after that, we would have learnt the right lessons from what has taken place this time around.
Earlier, Buhari’s wife commended Obasanjo for being a true nationalists, adding that the former president acted above partisan politics, while addressing issues affecting the country.
“Baba exercises his prowess as a father, as a former head of state of Nigeria twice, very few Nigerias have the opportunity to rule the country twice, we are here today to show our appreciation.”
the way you handle things as a stateman and also a nationalist..”
“We thank you so much for acting beyond party in getting things right, thank you for that, may you live long to continue solving out problems,” she said.
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