2019 Presidency: Why Obasanjo’s Support Matters

There is a reason why Olusegun Obasanjo, former military head of state and former civilian President of Nigeria, has remained a critical voice in the decision on who is elected president of Nigeria.

Since he completed his second term as president in 2007, Obasanjo has had a hand in the choice of a president for the country.

Advertisement

When he left, he foisted Umaru Yar’Adua on his party-the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who eventually won the presidential election of 2007. Yar’Adua lost his support barely one and half years into his tenure due to the ill-health that prevented him from functioning properly as president.

Yar’Adua eventually died in office and Obasanjo expressed support for his vice, Goodluck Jonathan, who completed his first term to seek a new term as president in the general election of 2011. Jonathan eventually won the presidency.

But shortly after, the two fell out and Obasanjo withdrew support for Jonathan who expressed the desire to seek a second term as president in 2015.

His relationship with Jonathan deteriorated to the extent that he had to publicly renounce membership of the PDP.

Advertisement

He switched support to the candidate of the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, also a former military head of state. General Buhari and his campaign team visited Obasanjo in his Abeokuta residence to formally seek his support.

He gave his support and spoke glowingly of Buhari as the man who could fight the pervasive corruption in the system and halt the expansionist move of Boko Haram insurgents who had then seized nearly have of Borno State and parts of Adamawa and Yobe States.

On January 23, Obasanjo stunned the nation when he allowed to be published by the media a letter to Buhari detailing the failings of his administration and why he would be well advised not to seek a second term.

Obasanjo has since then launched several tirades against the Buhari administration and why it does not deserve a second term.

But President Buhari ignored the advice and said only Nigerians would decide his fate. He subsequently went on to declare his intention for a second term. He emerged the presidential candidate of the APC five days ago after a delegate’s convention which affirmed his nomination by the party.

Advertisement

This directly pitches him against Obasanjo and anyone he supports for the presidency in 2019. Although he has said he had quit partisan politics, his utterances since penning the quit letter to Buhari suggest he would support another candidate against him.

All the 12 presidential aspirants of the main opposition party, the PDP, visited Obasanjo in Abeokuta to seek his endorsement except Atiku.

But five days after clinching the presidential ticket of the PDP by defeating 11 other aspirants at the party’s national convention in Portharcourt, Abubakar decided to visit Obasanjo in Abeoukuta with a powerful delegation of religious clerics.

The visit paid off and Obasanjo announced he had forgiven Abubakar for whatever he had done to incur his anger. And now it appears that the willy Ota farmer has found the candidate to support for the presidency against Buhari.

Now that Obasanjo has found his candidate, the question many are asking is whether he will win again.

“As far as I’m concerned, Obasanjo is not a kingmaker and can never be. He himself was made a king twice with little effort from himself. He only has nuisance value, and he’s one of the elder statesmen who can come out and say anything,” opined Junaid Muhammed, frontline norther politician and a fierce critic of Buhari.

Advertisement

Muhammed stressed that Obasanjo has no electoral value to anybody, adding that “he could not deliver his ward to the NPN in 1979.”

But Hassan Oyeleke, Majority Leader of the Kwara State House of Assembly, believes Obasanjo has more than nuisance value.

“As a former two-term president of the country, he definitely would have his supporters and admirers who will be swayed politically by whatever he says and supports whoever he supports,” he stated.

_
Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.

Leave a comment

Advertisement