26 Mar 2015

Obasanjo warns Jonathan over moves to Handover to Military

 
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said rumours are rife that the Goodluck Jonathan government might hand over power to the military due to the fear of Muhammadu Buhari.

Obasanjo said: “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 go away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the military is not meant to run the affairs of a nation in terms of running government.”

He warned that if such rumours become reality, they would undermine the integrity of Nigeria among the comity of nations.

Obasanjo made the remark when South West women of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Hajiya Aisha, wife of the party’s presidential candidate, General Buhari visited him at home in Abeokuta.

He said the international community, particularly African Union, would reject it because its constitution has outlawed that.

“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,” he said.

He added: “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."

Obasanjo called on women to participate actively in securing Nigeria, adding that they would be the greatest victim should anything go wrong in the country.

He said: “I am happy to hear directly from you, Mrs Buhari that the campaign so far, from the assessment has gone very well."