By Kunle Akogun and Chuks Okocha
Following the war of words raging between Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida, Senate President David Mark Friday appealed to the two former presidents to sheathe their swords in the interest of the nation.
Also, some elders of the Peoples Democratic Party and close associates of the two leaders have called on President Goodluck Jonathan, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, and former President Shehu Shagari to intervene in the bitter exchanges between the two.
Babangida had fired the first salvo on Tuesday, the eve of his 70th birthday, when he upbraided former President Obasanjo saying his administration spent $16 billion on power, without generating electricity. He blamed it on lack of ‘foresight’.
But Obasanjo, who ruled Nigeria for a second time for eight years from 1999-2007, reacted angrily, describing Babangida as “a fool at 70”.
A worried Mark urged the two elder statesmen to refrain from making further inflammatory remarks capable of destroying all the efforts they have sunk into building our great nation.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, Mark said: “As statesmen, you cannot afford to resolve your differences on the pages of newspapers. You have contributed immensely to the growth and development of this nation. Your responsibility is to advise those coming after you on the challenges confronting our nation today and in the future”.
At the PDP headquarters, a member of the National Working Committee of the party said PDP is disturbed by the bitter feud between the two former presidents who are members of the party. Obasanjo is the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees.
It was also gathered that a former senator from Adamawa State who is a friend to both Obasanjo and Babangida is working on arranging a peace meeting between the two leaders to ensure that the feud did not get out of hand.
A meeting of the friends of the two leaders is expected to take place this night at a private residence in Abuja.
The PDP NWC member, who asked not to be mentioned, said, “Obasanjo is the chairman of our BoT and one of the pillars of the party in the South-west while Babangida is equally a trusted party member and a respected stakeholder from the North. Two of them are important to PDP and this fight is not a good omen to the party.
“We are employing and begging elders and their friends to step into this matter before it comes too late. We are indeed worried when elders that we respect start to wash their under wears in the public. It is not a good omen”.
Former Presidential Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, who also described the altercation as worrisome, said only the like of General Gowon who is senior in the military to Obasanjo and Babangida, and Second Republic President Shagari could intervene in their squabble.
He also said President Jonathan could also intervene because he is a friend to both leaders.
“In the military tradition to which the two of them belongs, only their senior can intervene. Their senior is General Gowon and probably, President Shagari as a former president. And the earlier they intervene, the better for the country,” Yakassai said.
Giving an insight into the crisis, the former PLO said, “I am neither worried nor surprised because from what I know of the two, it is long expected. As a human being, General Babangida has some reasons to nurse some grudges against Chief Obasanjo.
“He single-handedly initiated an Obasanjo’s presidency and membership of the PDP, as well as the presidential pardon granted to him by the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Together with late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Babangida worked through the North and South-west to ensure that Obasanjo was acceptable. Even when some Yoruba kicked against his presidential ambition and voted against him and ensured he lost the local government election of 1999 in his ward, local government, Babangida insisted that Obasanjo must contest for the 1999 presidential election. He (Babangida) personally ensured that funds were made available for the presidential campaign of Obasanjo.”
Yakassai said rather than reciprocate that loyalty, Obasanjo stabbed Babangida in the back by allegedly using the Economic and Financial Crimes Comm-ission to frustrate Baban-gida’s presidential ambition in 2007, saying “it was an open secret that Obasanjo used the EFCC on his good friend and even to the extent of getting Babangida’s son, Mohammed, arrested”.
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