Jonathan Replies Obasanjo In An Attempt To Clear His Name

His Excellency,
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR
Agbe L’Oba House, Quarry Road,
Ibara, Abeokuta.
RE: BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
I wish to formally acknowledge your letter
dated December 2, 2013 and other
previous correspondence similar to it.
You will recall that all the letters were
brought to me by hand. Although both of us
discussed some of the issues in those
letters, I had not, before now, seen the
need for any formal reply since, to me, they
contained advice from a former President
to a serving President. Obviously, you felt
differently because in your last letter, you
complained about my not acknowledging
or replying your previous letters.
It is with the greatest possible reluctance
that I now write this reply. I am most
uneasy about embarking on this
unprecedented and unconventional form of
open communication between me and a
former leader of our country because I
know that there are more acceptable and
dignified means of doing so.
But I feel obliged to reply your letter for a
number of reasons: one, you formally
requested for a reply and not sending you
one will be interpreted as ignoring a former
President.
Secondly, Nigerians know the role you
have played in my political life and given
the unfortunate tone of your letter, clearly,
the grapes have gone sour. Therefore, my
side of the story also needs to be told.
The third reason why I must reply you in
writing is that your letter is clearly a threat
to national security as it may deliberately
or inadvertently set the stage for
subversion.
The fourth reason for this reply is that you
raised very weighty issues, and since the
letter has been made public, Nigerians are
expressing legitimate concerns. A response
from me therefore, becomes very
necessary.
The fifth reason is that this letter may
appear in biographies and other books
which political commentators on Nigeria’s
contemporary politics may write. It is only
proper for such publications to include my
comments on the issues raised in your
letter.
Sixthly, you are very unique in terms of the
governance of this country. You were a
military Head of State for three years and
eight months, and an elected President for
eight years. That means you have been the
Head of Government of Nigeria for about
twelve years. This must have, presumably,
exposed you to a lot of information. Thus
when you make a statement, there is the
tendency for people to take it seriously.
The seventh reason is that the timing of
your letter coincided with other vicious
releases. The Speaker of the House of
Representatives spoke of my “body
language” encouraging corruption. A letter
written to me by the CBN Governor alleging
that NNPC, within a period of 19 months
did not remit the sum of USD49.8 billion to
the federation account, was also
deliberately leaked to the public.
The eighth reason is that it appears that
your letter was designed to incite Nigerians
from other geopolitical zones against me
and also calculated to promote ethnic
disharmony. Worse still, your letter was
designed to instigate members of our
Party, the PDP, against me.
The ninth reason is that your letter conveys
to me the feeling that landmines have been
laid for me. Therefore, Nigerians need to
have my response to the issues raised
before the mines explode.
The tenth and final reason why my reply is
inevitable is that you have written similar
letters and made public comments in
reference to all former Presidents and
Heads of Government starting from Alhaji
Shehu Shagari and these have instigated
different actions and reactions. The
purpose and direction of your letter is
distinctly ominous, and before it is too late,
my clarifications on the issues need to be
placed on record.
Let me now comment on the issues you
raised. In commenting I wish to crave your
indulgence to compare what is happening
now to what took place before. This, I
believe, will enable Nigerians see things in
better perspective because we must know
where we are coming from so as to
appreciate where we now are, and to allow
us clearly map out where we are going.
You raised concerns about the security
situation in the country. I assure you that I
am fully aware of the responsibility of
government for ensuring the security of the
lives and property of citizens. My
Administration is working assiduously to
overcome current national security
challenges, the seeds of which were sown
under previous administrations.  There
have been some setbacks; but certainly
there have also been great successes in
our efforts to overcome terrorism and
insurgency.
Those who continue to down-play our
successes in this regard, amongst whom
you must now be numbered, appear to
have conveniently forgotten the depths to
which security in our country had plunged
before now.
At a stage, almost the entire North-East of
Nigeria was under siege by insurgents.
Bombings of churches and public buildings
in the North and the federal capital became
an almost weekly occurrence. Our entire
national security apparatus seemed
nonplussed and unable to come to grips
with the new threat posed by the berthing
of terrorism on our shores.
But my administration has since brought
that very unacceptable situation under
significant control. We have overhauled our
entire national security architecture,
improved intelligence gathering, training,
funding, logistical support to our armed
forces and security agencies, and security
collaboration with friendly countries with
very visible and positive results.
The scope and impact of terrorist
operations have been significantly reduced
and efforts are underway to restore full
normalcy to the most affected North
Eastern region and initiate a post-crisis
development agenda, including a special
intervention programme to boost the
region’s socio-economic progress.
In doing all this, we have kept our doors
open for dialogue with the insurgents and
their supporters through efforts such as the
work of the Presidential Committee on
Dialogue and the Peaceful Resolution of the
Security Challenges in the North-East. You
also know that the Governor of Borno State
provided the items you mentioned to me as
carrots. Having done all this and more, it is
interesting that you still accuse me of not
acting on your hardly original
recommendation that the carrot and stick
option be deployed to solve the Boko
Haram problem.
Your suggestion that we are pursuing a
“war against violence without
understanding the root causes of the
violence and applying solutions to deal
with all the underlying factors” is definitely
misplaced because from the onset of this
administration, we have been
implementing a multifaceted strategy
against militancy, insurgency and terrorism
that includes poverty alleviation, economic
development, education and social
reforms.
Even though basic education is the
constitutional responsibility of States, my
administration has, as part of its efforts to
address ignorance and poor education
which have been identified as two of the
factors responsible for making some of our
youth easily available for use as cannon
fodder by insurgents and terrorists,
committed huge funds to the provision of
modern basic education schools for the
Almajiri in several Northern States. The
Federal Government under my leadership
has also set up nine additional universities
in the Northern States and three in the
Southern States in keeping with my belief
that proper education is the surest way of
emancipating and empowering our people.
More uncharitable persons may even see a
touch of sanctimoniousness in your new
belief in the carrot and stick approach to
overcoming militancy and insurgency. You
have always referred to how you hit Odi in
Bayelsa State to curb militancy in the Niger
Delta. If the invasion of Odi by the Army
was the stick, I did not see the
corresponding carrot. I was the Deputy
Governor of Bayelsa State then, and as I
have always told you, the invasion of Odi
did not solve any militancy problem but, to
some extent, escalated it. If it had solved
it, late President Yar’Adua would not have
had to come up with the amnesty program.
And while some elements of the problem
may still be there, in general, the situation
is reasonably better.
In terms of general insecurity in the country
and particularly the crisis in the Niger
Delta, 2007 was one of the worst periods in
our history. You will recall three incidents
that happened in 2007 which seemed to
have been orchestrated to achieve sinister
objectives. Here in Abuja, a petrol tanker
loaded with explosives was to be rammed
into the INEC building. But luckily for the
country, an electric pole stopped the tanker
from hitting the INEC building. It is clear
that this incident was meant to exploit the
general sense of insecurity in the nation at
the time to achieve the aim of stopping the
2007 elections. It is instructive that you,
on a number of occasions, alluded to this
fact.
When that incident failed, an armed group
invaded Yenagoa one evening with the
intent to assassinate me. Luckily for me,
they could not.  They again attacked and
bombed my country home on a night when
I was expected in the village. Fortunately,
as God would have it, I did not make the
trip.
I recall that immediately after both
incidents, I got calls expressing the
concern of Abuja. But Baba, you know that
despite the apparent concern of Abuja, no
single arrest was ever made. I was then
the Governor of Bayelsa State and the PDP
Vice-Presidential candidate. The security
people ordinarily should have unraveled
the assassination attempt on me.
You also raised the issues of kidnapping,
piracy and armed robbery. These are
issues all Nigerians, including me are very
concerned about. While we will continue to
do our utmost best to reduce all forms of
criminality to the barest minimum in our
country, it is just as well to remind you that
the first major case of kidnapping for
ransom took place around 2006. And the
Boko Haram crisis dates back to 2002.
Goodluck Jonathan was not the President
of the country then. Also, armed robbery
started in this country immediately after the
civil war and since then, it has been a
problem to all succeeding governments.
For a former Head of Government, who
should know better, to present these
problems as if they were creations of the
Jonathan Administration is most
uncharitable.
Having said that, let me remind you of
some of the things we have done to curb
violent crime in the country. We have
reorganized the Nigerian Police Force and
appointed a more dynamic leadership to
oversee its affairs. We have also improved
its manpower levels as well as funding,
training and logistical support.
We have also increased the surveillance
capabilities of the Police and provided its
air-wing with thrice the number of
helicopters it had before the inception of
the present administration. The National
Civil Defence and Security Corps has been
armed to make it a much more effective
ally of the police and other security
agencies in the war against violent crime.
At both domestic and international levels,
we are doing everything possible to curb
the proliferation of the small arms and light
weapons with which armed robberies,
kidnappings and piracy are perpetrated. We
have also enhanced security at our borders
to curb cross-border crimes.
We are aggressively addressing the
challenge of crude oil theft in collaboration
with the state Governors. In addition, the
Federal Government has engaged the
British and US governments for their
support in the tracking of the proceeds
from the purchase of stolen crude.
Similarly, a regional Gulf of Guinea security
strategy has been initiated to curb crude oil
theft and piracy.
Perhaps the most invidious accusation in
your letter is the allegation that I have
placed over one thousand Nigerians on a
political watch list, and that I am training
snipers and other militia to assassinate
people. Baba, I don’t know where you got
that from but you do me grave injustice in
not only lending credence to such baseless
rumours, but also publicizing it. You
mentioned God seventeen times in your
letter. Can you as a Christian hold the Bible
and say that you truly believe this
allegation?
The allegation of training snipers to
assassinate political opponents is
particularly incomprehensible to me. Since
I started my political career as a Deputy
Governor, I have never been associated
with any form of political violence. I have
been a President for over three years now,
with a lot of challenges and opposition
mainly from the high and mighty. There
have certainly been cases of political
assassination since the advent of our
Fourth Republic, but as you well know,
none of them occurred under my
leadership.
Regarding the over one thousand people
you say are on a political watch list, I urge
you to kindly tell Nigerians who they are
and what agencies of government are
“watching” them. Your allegation that I am
using security operatives to harass people
is also baseless. Nigerians are waiting for
your evidence of proof. That was an
accusation made against previous
administrations, including yours, but it is
certainly not my style and will never be.
Again, if you insist on the spurious claim
that some of your relatives and friends are
being harassed, I urge you to name them
and tell Nigerians what agencies of my
administration are harassing them.
I also find it difficult to believe that you will
accuse me of assisting murderers, or
assigning a presidential delegation to
welcome a murderer. This is a most
unconscionable and untrue allegation. It is
incumbent on me to remind you that I am
fully conscious of the dictates of my
responsibilities to God and our dear nation.
It is my hope that devious elements will not
take advantage of your baseless allegation
to engage in brazen and wanton
assassination of high profile politicians as
before, hiding under the alibi your “open
letter” has provided for them.
Nevertheless, I have directed the security
agencies and requested the National
Human Rights Commission to carry out a
thorough investigation of these criminal
allegations and make their findings public.
That corruption is an issue in Nigeria is
indisputable. It has been with us for many
years. You will recall that your kinsman, the
renowned afro-beat maestro, Fela
Anikulapo-Kuti famously sang about it
during your first stint as Head of State.
Sonny Okosun also sang about corruption.
And as you may recall, a number of Army
Generals were to be retired because of
corruption before the Dimka coup.  Also,
the late General Murtala Mohammed
himself wanted to retire some top people in
his cabinet on corruption-related issues
before he was assassinated.  Even in this
Fourth Republic, the Siemens and
Halliburton scandals are well known.
The seed of corruption in this country was
planted a long time ago, but we are doing
all that we can to drastically reduce its
debilitating effects on national
development and progress. I have been
strengthening the institutions established to
fight corruption. I will not shield any
government official or private individual
involved in corruption, but I must follow
due process in all that I do. And whenever
clear cases of corruption or fraud have
been established, my administration has
always taken prompt action in keeping with
the dictates of extant laws and procedures.
You cannot claim to be unaware of the fact
that several highly placed persons in our
country, including sons of some of our
party leaders are currently facing trial for
their involvement in the celebrated subsidy
scam affair. I can hardly be blamed if the
wheels of justice still grind very slowly in
our country, but we are doing our best to
support and encourage the judiciary to
quicken the pace of adjudication in cases
of corruption.
Baba, I am amazed that with all the
knowledge garnered from your many years
at the highest level of governance in our
country, you could still believe the spurious
allegation contained in a letter written to
me by the Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), and surreptitiously obtained
by you, alleging that USD49.8 billion, a
sum equal to our entire national budget for
two years, is “unaccounted for” by the
NNPC. Since, as President, you also served
for many years as Minister of Petroleum
Resources, you very well know the
workings of the corporation. It is therefore
intriguing that you have made such an
assertion. You made a lot of insinuations
about oil theft, shady dealings at the NNPC
and the NNPC not remitting the full
proceeds of oil sales to the of CBN. Now
that the main source of the allegations
which you rehashed has publicly stated
that he was “misconstrued”, perhaps you
will find it in your heart to apologize for
misleading unwary Nigerians and
impugning the integrity of my
administration on that score.
Your claim of “Atlantic Oil loading about
130, 000 barrels sold by Shell and
managed on behalf of NPDC with no sale
proceeds paid into the NPDC account” is
also disjointed and baseless because no
such arrangement as you described exists
between Atlantic Oil and the Nigeria
Petroleum Development Company. NPDC
currently produces about 138, 000 barrels
of oil per day from over 7 producing
assets. The Crude Oil Marketing Division
(COMD) of the NNPC markets all of this
production on behalf of NPDC with
proceeds paid into NPDC account.
I am really shocked that with all avenues
open to you as a former Head of State for
the verification of any information you have
received about state affairs, you chose to
go public with allegations of “high
corruption” without offering a shred of
supporting evidence. One of your political
“sons” similarly alleged recently that he
told me of a minister who received a bribe
of $250 Million from an oil company and I
did nothing about it. He may have been
playing from a shared script, but we have
not heard from him again since he was
challenged to name the minister involved
and provide the evidence to back his
claim. I urge you, in the same vein, to
furnish me with the names, facts and
figures of a single verifiable case of the
“high corruption” which you say stinks all
around my administration and see whether
the corrective action you advocate does not
follow promptly. And while you are at it,
you may also wish to tell Nigerians the true
story of questionable waivers of signature
bonuses between 2000 and 2007.
While, by the Grace of God Almighty, I am
the first President from a minority group, I
am never unmindful of the fact that I was
elected leader of the whole of Nigeria and I
have always acted in the best interest of all
Nigerians. You referred to the divisive
actions and inflammatory utterances of
some individuals from the South-South and
asserted that I have done nothing to call
them to order or distance myself from their
ethnic chauvinism. Again that is very
untrue. I am as committed to the unity of
this country as any patriot can be and I
have publicly declared on many occasions
that no person who threatens other
Nigerians or parts of the country is acting
on my behalf.
It is very regrettable that in your letter, you
seem to place sole responsibility for the
ongoing intrigues and tensions in the PDP
at my doorstep, and going on from that
position, you direct all your appeals for a
resolution at me. Baba, let us all be truthful
to ourselves, God and posterity. At the
heart of all the current troubles in our party
and the larger polity is the unbridled
jostling and positioning for personal or
group advantage ahead of the 2015
general elections. The “bitterness, anger,
mistrust, fear and deep suspicion” you
wrote about all flow from this singular
factor.
It is indeed very unfortunate that the
seeming crisis in the party was instigated
by a few senior members of the party,
including you. But, as leader of the party, I
will continue to do my best to unite it so
that we can move forward with strength
and unity of purpose. The PDP has always
recovered from previous crises with
renewed vigour and vitality. I am very
optimistic that that will be the case again
this time. The PDP will overcome any
temporary setback, remain a strong party
and even grow stronger.
Instigating people to cause problems and
disaffection within the party is something
that you are certainly familiar with. You will
recall that founding fathers of the Party
were frustrated out of the Party at a time.
Late Chief Sunday Awoniyi was pushed
out, Late Chief Solomon Lar left and later
came back, Chief Audu Ogbeh and Chief
Tom Ikimi also left. Chief Okwesilieze
Nwodo left and later came back. In
2005/2006, link-men were sent to take
over party structures from PDP Governors
in an unveiled attempt to undermine the
state governors. In spite of that, the
Governors did not leave the Party because
nobody instigated and encouraged them to
do so.
The charge that I was involved in anti-
party activities in governorship elections in
Edo, Ondo, Lagos, and Anambra States is
also very unfortunate. I relate with all
Governors irrespective of political party
affiliation but I have not worked against the
interest of the PDP. What I have not done
is to influence the electoral process to
favour our Party. You were definitely never
so inclined, since you openly boasted in
your letter of how you supported Alhaji
Shehu Shagari against Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe and others
in the 1979 presidential elections while
serving as a military Head of State. You
and I clearly differ in this regard, because
as the President of Nigeria, I believe it is
my duty and responsibility to create a level
playing field for all parties and all
candidates.
Recalling how the PDP lost in states where
we were very strong in 2003 and 2007
such as Edo, Ondo, Imo, Bauchi, Anambra,
and Borno, longstanding members of our
great party with good memory will also
consider the charge of anti-party activities
you made against me as misdirected and
hugely hypocritical. It certainly was not
Goodluck Jonathan’s “personal ambition or
selfish interest” that caused the PDP to lose
the governorship of Ogun State and all its
senatorial seats in the last general
elections.
You quoted me as saying that I have not
told anybody that I will seek another term
in office in 2015. You and your ambitious
acolytes within the party have clearly
decided to act on your conclusion that
“only a fool will believe that statement” and
embark on a virulent campaign to harass
me out of an undeclared candidature for
the 2015 presidential elections so as to
pave the way for a successor anointed by
you.
You will recall that you serially advised me
that we should refrain from discussing the
2015 general elections for now so as not to
distract elected public officials from urgent
task of governance. While you have
apparently moved away from that position,
I am still of the considered opinion that it
would have been best for us to do all that
is necessary to refrain from heating up the
polity at this time. Accordingly, I have
already informed Nigerians that I will only
speak on whether or not I will seek a
second term when it is time for such
declarations. Your claims about
discussions I had with you, Governor
Gabriel Suswam and others are wrong, but
in keeping with my declared stance, I will
reserve further comments until the
appropriate time.
Your allegation that I asked half a dozen
African Presidents to speak to you about
my alleged ambition for 2015, is also
untrue. I have never requested any African
President to discuss with you on my
behalf. In our discussion, I mentioned to
you that four Presidents told me that they
were concerned about the political situation
in Nigeria and intended to talk to you about
it. So far, only three of them have
confirmed to me that they have had any
discussion with you. If I made such a
request, why would I deny it?
The issue of Buruji Kashamu is one of
those lies that should not be associated
with a former President. The allegation
that I am imposing Kashamu on the South-
West is most unfortunate and regrettable. I
do not even impose Party officials in my
home state of Bayelsa and there is no zone
in this country where I have imposed
officials. So why would I do so in the
South West? Baba, in the light of Buruji’s
detailed public response to your “open
letter”, it will be charitable for you to render
an apology to Nigerians and I.
On the issue of investors being scared to
come to Nigeria, economic dormancy, and
stagnation, I will just refer you to FDI
statistics from 2000 to 2013. Within the last
three years, Nigeria has emerged as the
preferred destination for investments in
Africa, driven by successful government
policies to attract foreign investors. For the
second year running, the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Investments
(UNCTAD) has ranked Nigeria as the
number one destination for investments in
Africa, and as having the fourth highest
returns in the world.
Today, Nigeria is holding 18 percent of all
foreign investments in Africa and 60
percent of all foreign investments in the
ECOWAS Sub-Region. Kindly note also that
in the seven years between 2000 and 2007
when you were President, Nigeria attracted
a total of $24.9 Billion in FDI.  As a result
of our efforts which you disparage, the
country has seen an FDI inflow of $25.7
Billion in just three years which is more
than double the FDI that has gone to the
second highest African destination. We
have also maintained an annual national
economic growth rate of close to seven per
cent since the inception of this
administration. What then, is the
justification for your allegation of scared
investors and economic dormancy?
Although it was not emphasized in your
letter of December 2, 2013, you also
conveyed, in previous correspondence, the
impression that you were ignorant of the
very notable achievements of my
administration in the area of foreign
relations. It is on record that under my
leadership, Nigeria has played a key role in
resolving the conflicts in Niger, Cote
d’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea Bissau and others.
The unproductive rivalry that existed
between Nigeria and some ECOWAS
countries has also been ended under my
watch and Nigeria now has better relations
with all the ECOWAS countries. At the
African Union, we now have a
Commissioner at the AU Commission after
being without one for so long. We were in
the United Nations Security Council for the
2010/2011 Session and we have been
voted in again for the 2014/2015 Session.
From independence to 2010, we were in the
U.N. Security Council only three times but
from 2010 to 2015, we will be there two
times.
This did not happen by chance. My
Administration worked hard for it and we
continue to maintain the best possible
relations with all centres of global political
and economic power. I find it hard
therefore, to believe your assertions of
untoward concern in the international
community over the state of governance in
Nigeria
With respect to the Brass and Olokola LNG
projects, you may have forgotten that
though you started these projects, Final
Investment Decisions were never reached.
For your information, NNPC has not
withdrawn from either the Olokola or the
Brass LNG projects.
On the Rivers State Water Project, you were
misled by your informant. The Federal
Government under my watch has never
directed or instructed the Africa
Development Bank to put on hold any
project to be executed in Rivers state or
any other State within the Federation. The
Rivers Water Project was not originally in
the borrowing plan but it was included in
April 2013 and appraised in May.
Negotiations are ongoing with the AfDB. I
have no doubt that you are familiar with the
entire process that prefaces the signing of
a Subsidiary Loan Agreement as in this
instance.
Let me assure you and all Nigerians that I
do not engage in negative political actions
and will never, as President, oppress the
people of a State or deprive them of much
needed public services as a result of
political disagreement
I have noted your comments on the
proposed National Conference. Contrary to
the insinuation in your letter, the proposed
conference is aimed at bringing Nigerians
together to resolve contentious national
issues in a formal setting. This is a sure
way of promoting greater national
consensus and unity, and not a recipe for
“disunity, confusion and chaos” as you
alleged in your letter.
Having twice held the high office of
President, Commander-In-Chief of the
Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, I trust that you will understand that
I cannot possibly find the time to offer a
line-by-line response to all the
accusations and allegations made in your
letter while dealing with other pressing
demands of office and more urgent affairs
of state.
I have tried, however, to respond to only
the most serious of the charges which
question my sincerity, personal honour,
and commitment to the oath which I have
sworn, to always uphold and protect the
interests of all Nigerians, and promote their
well-being.
In closing, let me state that you have done
me grave injustice with your public letter in
which you wrongfully accused me of
deceit, deception, dishonesty,
incompetence, clannishness, divisiveness
and insincerity, amongst other ills.
I have not, myself, ever claimed to be all-
knowing or infallible, but I have never
taken Nigeria or Nigerians for granted as
you implied, and I will continue to do my
utmost to steer our ship of state towards
the brighter future to which we all aspire.
Please accept the assurances of my
highest consideration and warm regards.
GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN