A socio-political organisation, Social Rehabilitation Gruppe (SRG) has expressed concern that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Monday call for the cancellation of this year’s presidential election is another plot to re-enact the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
The group, in a statement by its Convener/National Coordinator, Dr. Marindoti Oludare, described Obasanjo’s description of ongoing electoral process as fraudulent, saying it was as a figment of his imagination and a clear coup against democracy.
In the statement titled, “Annulment guru? From June 12 1993 to February 25, 2023”, Oludare stated that Obasanjo’s “supplications should be derided, his advice unheeded, as his name recedes into the abyss of history along with the other villains of Nigeria’s democracy”.
“That is an exclusive club where he belongs. An elderly man that ties a cob of corn around his waist should not wonder why the youth (as in the proverbial fowl and corn-tying folklore) deride his name.”
Dissecting the former president’s open broadcast in which he called for the annulment of the presidential poll, Oludare, the SRG boss, added that “Obasanjo’s unrelenting disregard for the rule of law has never been more apparent than his pre-election unsolicited open letter.
“He was out of his debt about the electoral act, never thought to check if the president was bestowed with such power to overturn an election; never gave credence to the tried and verified election tribunal in Nigeria that overturned many of Obasanjo-induced fraudulent elections in the post-2007 election cycle.”
Recalling the former president’s roles in Nigeria’s budding democracy, Oludare said Obasanjo played an ignoble role in circumstances that led to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Recalling the circumstances of the period, Oludare stated, “The June 12 election struggle was life and rife; Tinubu told a story of a meeting where Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, himself and Dele Alake were all present. The meeting was cordial, they dined to plates of ‘Amala’ and hot vegetable soup.
“Obasanjo and MKO were macho with hot pepper vegetable while Tinubu and Dele Alake rolled on the floor to the burning spice of the hot soup. Obasanjo feigned camaraderie with the struggle, listened to all their plans; and like a spy master in an espionage movie, Obasanjo went away to Zimbabwe to announce that Abiola was not the Messiah.
“He is a man who believes so much in his ‘messianism’; he wanted to be an Interim president in ‘93, and concorted a thrd term agenda in an attempt to be president for life; like his friend, Mugabe of Zimbabwe.”
He added: “Fast-forward; three decades on, Obasanjo has come up with another annulment plot based on the many lies he has let his name to be associated, with like, having prevented 100 trucks filled with 1.5 million people from Chad from voting in Kaduna.
“Obasanjo is a man with not integrity, a man of disrepute; he ran the most corrupt elections in the history of this country, elections that even INEC had not official numbers for. Elections that even the beneficiaries acknowledged were marred with electoral malpractices.
“Obasanjo’s unrelenting disregard for the rule of law has never been more apparent than his pre-election, unsolicited open letter.”
On the former president’s call for the cancellation of the election, Oludare urged that all Nigerians should ignore ex-president, averring that he was unduly compromised.
“Obasanjo never thought to check if the president was bestowed with such power to overturn an election, as he never gave credence to the tried and verified election tribunal in Nigeria that overturned many of Obasanjo’s induced fraudulent elections in the post-2007 election cycle.
“The obtuse octogenarian had no reservation in assailing the personality and assassinating the character of career INEC officials over claims he has no proof of. He spoke of looming danger and disaster, a phantom in his head; spoke of the need for INEC chairman to mend his reputation and character, two words Obasanjo can’t fathom.
“This is a man who turned Operation Feed the Nation to his own personal Ota Farm and was accused by his son of incest with his own daughter-in-law.
Like a horse with no claim, a man with no shame from a place with no name, he kowtowed to President Buhari, the same man he twice masterminded an electoral malpractice against, asking for illicit, illegal and highly reprehensible favour for his ‘Obidient’ lapdog,” the SRG boss excoriated.
Kayode Fasua,
National Publicity Secretary,
SRG