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The spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala, has labelled former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a “meddlesome interloper”, who is striving to force a puppet on Nigerians.
Bwala made the allegation when he appeared on Politics Today, a popular programme on Channels Television on Monday.
Obasanjo had stirred the hornet nest in his New Year’s message when he openly endorsed that former Anambra State governor and Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, in the letter.
But Bwala, who spoke from his London location, accused Obasanjo of being the only one of five surviving past leaders meddling in the affairs of the country.
He also believed that the ex-president’s allusion to Obi as a needle with thread was disrespectful and reeked of an attempt to foist a puppet on the country.
He said, “There are quite a number of things in Obasanjo’s letter that cannot be argued like the APC rule. I agreed with him that the last eight years of the APC have been perilous. It is a period Nigerians would pray not to have a repeat. This is the reason I believe Nigerians will not vote for the APC again.
“But the part of his letter that I think is wrong was in the last four paragraphs where he identified Peter Obi as a needle with thread and can easily be controlled when he goes wrong. That is where we know Obasanjo is in search of a third term by proxy. What he is saying is that Peter Obi is a puppet.
“Obasanjo, to my greatest respect, lacks the moral attitude to become the father of the nation. There are about five former presidents alive today. None of them interferes with the country like a meddling interloper like President Obasanjo.
“If you look at the letter, it is all about me, mine and I. He rated his own administration from 1999 to 2007 as impeccable but could not find any element of praise for any administration after him. In other words, Obasanjo believes that he has the celestial power to predict the future and leadership of Nigeria. That attitude is antithetical to Nigeria’s democracy.
“Obasanjo thinks that democracy is as defined by him. To begin with, whether he has weight or electoral value, you remember that as soon as he was brought out of prison in 1998, a former governor from the South East said Obasanjo does not even have N200,000 to buy his nomination form hence they bought for him.
“Today, he has Obasanjo farm in Ota, presidential library and Ota farm supplies not only to Nigeria but to the rest of Africa. He did not even win his polling unit in 1999. Therefore, if you look at it from the evidence of value, he does not even have the moral to call the presidential candidate of any party as someone he can direct.”
