|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
On Friday, former president Olusegun Obasanjo raised an alarm that Muhammadu Buhari-led government is on a secret and selective mission to silence and gag him. This is following his continuous criticism of the president’s job performance which he has described as disappointing.
Obasanjo alleged that he has been warned of sinister moves by government to either seize his international passport or mobilise the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe him on series of phantom corruption cases in a bid to silence him.
Obasanjo said he was not afraid of a probe but requested for objective and credible panel of enquiry to do that. Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo’s Media Aide who issued the statement on behalf of the former president said that it was based on information from “Impeccable security sources” who also claim that Obasanjo’s name is on their Watch List and that the security of his life cannot be guaranteed.
“According to these informants, many of whom are in the top echelon of the Nation’s security management and close to the corridors of power, the operatives are daily perfecting how to curtail the personal liberties of the former president and hang a crime on him.”
The statement came the same week Senate President Bukola Saraki was facing his own baptism of fire from the police, who alleged that he has been linked with a robbery incident in his home state of Kwara and therefore summoned him for questioning. The senate president has gone ahead to deny the allegation and has insisted he is being framed up.
But in a quick statement issued on Friday, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said that the Buhari administration will not be distracted by the “frivolous allegations from any quarter, especially those cleverly choreographed to divert attention from a widely-acclaimed presidential proclamation and to shore up support for a waning and egotistical cause”.
The Minister was referring to President Buhari’s decision to declare June 12 as Democracy Day. The Presidency apparently believes that Obasanjo has raised alarm about his safety to distract attention from what the Presidency now believes was a ‘political master stroke’ aimed at winning him votes in the South West where the president has lost much support in the last three years.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu on Sunday claimed that the political move by the President has already earned it massive goodwill going by the reactions on tweeter. Garba claimed that after analysing 150,000 Tweets on Twitter discussing the new Presidential directive “over 80% of these Tweets and reactions hailed Mr. President’s decision”
“While Buhari’s tsunami on June 12 has stoked the anger and the fear of some elite group, the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day and the conferment of National Honours on MKO, his running mate Ambassador Kingibe and the foremost pro-democracy activist, late Gani Fawehinmi was, in another breath, greeted with great enthusiasm and warmth by Nigerians, most especially on the social media.”
“He noted that many of such applauses came from well-known opposition voices like Femi Fani Kayode (@realffk) amongst others.”
“The story on Facebook was not an exception. Nigerians were thankful to President Buhari for upholding Democracy and staging a surprise when it was least expected”
In the opinion of the president, Obasanjo was just envious of the political mileage that Buhari has gained from declaring June 12 a public holiday. Tomorrow June 12, Buhari will be celebrating further when representatives of Abiola family come in to receive the national honours given to their father posthumously.
To crown the high tension political drama in the week, Donald Duke announced on 9 June that he will be standing for president in 2019. Apparently his candidacy is so popular that by Sunday evening his tweet announcing his intention has attracted 1,300 replies, 3,800 retweets and 5,500 likes. The race for 2019 is taking shape.
RAZAQ AYINLA
