Erstwhile Minister of Transport and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has excoriated former President, Olusegun Obasanjo for criticizing the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of being antagonistic to the current government.
Babatope disputed insinuations that President Jonathan supervises corruption in the country as completely wrong and grossly mischievous. With regards to Jonathan stoking ethnicity, he rather described the president as a ‘gentleman who has maintained the delicate balance of power’.
The former Minister maintained that Obasanjo, as a former president should undertake some comprehensive and responsible steps that would help address the economic situation of the country, rather than throw jabs at the system in ways that were gradually becoming unnecessary.
Babatope whose statement was provoked by Obasanjo’s latest criticism of the president, said, “My attention has once again been drawn to comments by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which are definitely antagonistic to the person of President Jonathan and also antagonistic to the PDP administration that president Jonathan heads.
“When he talked some few days ago that the performance of President Jonathan was below average, I felt so bad about it and I’m very happy that one of the major newspapers in Nigeria published my immediate reactions to that statement. I did not only say that former president Olusegun Obasanjo was wrong in bringing out those sentiment about President Jonathan but I felt that it was in bad taste and that what he said cannot stand the test of time,” he posited.
The PDP chieftain, who insisted that President Jonathan has performed well in office, advised reasonable and objective minded Nigerians not to allow themselves to be misled into ‘believing matters that have no basis or connection with the reality’ particularly now that elections are near.
“With due respect to his age and the position he has held, it is wrong. Nobody has ever come out to indict President Jonathan of involving himself in acts of corruption. He has never encouraged it.
“Like I said in a media chat recently, President Jonathan does not allow himself to be governed by sentiments and emotions. He allows all his functionaries to defend themselves whenever any charges are brought against them. What again do you want?” he asked.
As regards the former President’s take on the economy under Jonathan, Chief Babatope held that economic challenges did not begin in Nigeria today, saying, “If you talk in terms of the economy, which Obasanjo said has been so bad; the economy is not something that is coming up today.
“In the second republic, I was in the UPN founded by late Pa Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory, there was a time the matter was so terrible that in fact papa had to give advice, which was misread and misinterpreted by members of the NPN at that time. We are talking of events of nearly 30 something years ago.
“Even he himself, former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he was military Head of State, he declared Operation Feed the Nation to stem the economic problems facing Nigeria that time. I remember very well the papers carried a picture of him carrying a hoe and going to the farm and said the economy was bad and that we should go back to the farm.
“What we should be involved in particularly himself as a former president of Nigeria is to ensure that we do things that will assist Nigeria in breaking the problems that we have. He has been involved in these matters. Why are you now saying that the economy is bad? We know the economy is bad but it is not something, which has happened today.
”It has its roots in many, many administrations in the country. Doyin Okupe was correct in his analysis by saying that if you put the history of Nigeria together you will have to give a pat on the back to President Jonathan. I have been a critic of many regimes in this country; I have been to jail two or three times because of that stand; I have lost my job, I have no retirement benefits and therefore I am in a position to tell people,” he noted.
Acknowledging that Obasanjo has always been a critic of many governments in the country, Babatope pointed out that the former President had serious economic issues he contended with as President, stressing that it was not right and proper to continue to criticize Jonathan whom, he said, has not done anything detrimental to the country.
His words, “While he is doing these, I can’t understand. It baffles me why he is doing what he is doing. Elections are coming. Some of the opposition parties are threatening fire and brimstones and then you are oiling what they are saying and yet, former president Obasanjo declares all the time that he is a loyal PDP man.
“If we now accept that, where then is the truism in the statement made by people who in fact are practitioners of democracy that when you talk about the party system the party is supreme.
“If you now say the head of government of your own party has done some things, which in fact cannot be proved, then where is the truism is saying that the party is supreme? Where is the supremacy of the party? We must not be seen to be throwing stones at the party system under the new democratic system we have in Nigeria. We have problems and by the grace of God one day these problems will be solved,” he said.
DAILY POST recalls that Obasanjo had decried the state of the economy, corruption and general conduct of political affairs under President Jonathan during a book launch in honour of former Chairman of the ICPC, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, stressing that the President may not be telling Nigerians the truth about the true state of the Nigerian economy.
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