Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was on Thursday cautioned by South-south leaders, chiefs, elders and stakeholders to stop harassing, intimidating, stampeding or blackmailing President Goodluck Jonathan.
Obasanjo had recently accused President Jonathan of sundry issues, including training of assassins to eliminate political opponents.
Rising from its meeting in Abuja, the South-South leaders, chiefs, elders and stakeholders told Obasanjo that Nigerians cannot breath through his nose, adding that they supported him when he was the President and that they were not the ones that aborted his third term bid.
Speaking though their spokesperson and chief co-ordinator in FCT, Bello Premier, the group condemned Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan, describing it as a false alarm.
“General Obasanjo is only shouting wolf when there is none in sight. The letter is full of premeditated ideas geared towards undermining the integrity of the South-South people and intended to keep them perpetually as minority in the political scheme of Nigeria as nation,” they said.
The group added that the South-south would resist any attempt to make them second class citizens in their own country, adding, “there is no way where one man (Obasanjo) would want the entire country Nigeria to breath through his nose.”
It said that because Obasanjo noted that his bid to foist Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi on Nigeria as President and Vice President has failed was the reason why he wants to destabilise Jonathan’s government.
“General Obasanjo shot himself in the leg when early in the year he anointed and pronounced Alhaji Sule Lamido of Jigawa and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state a next President and Vice President respectively come 2015, the reason why Obasanjo decides to embark on his failed mission. Only he (Obasanjo) can explain and the entire South-south are looking at his face.
“If he Obasanjo had his constitutional right to stand for an election to vote and be voted for, same goes for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who is a bonafide Nigeria from South-south. The right of offer of refusal to contest or not to contest in 2015 solely rest with Jonathan alone.
“He must not be intimidated, harassed, stampeded or blackmailed to surrender power against the collective will of the good people of South-south and Nigeria who in 2011 gave him (Obasanjo) their mandate,” it said.
The group added that the bold developmental strive as witnessed in this current administration of Jonathan has never happened before in the history of Nigeria despite the enormous challenges of both human and natural hiccups, which is of course global and its attended consequences.
Despite the devastating phenomenon in the areas of security- terrorism, kidnapping and militancy, natural disasters like flooding, oil spillage among others, the group said that Jonathan administration has made inroad in the power, telecommunication, agricultural, sport, education, health, defence, highways, aviation, waterways and other sectors.
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