Obasanjo Warns Against Handing Over To Military Government

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo warns the federal government against undermining the integrity of Nigerians if Jonathan lose and the power is handover to a military man as it seems to be the rumour going round.

The former President raised the alarm while hosting the South West women of the All Progressives Congress led by the wife of the party’s presidential candidate, Hajia Aisha Buhari.

Obasanjo had recently warned against introduction of Interim National Government  which he said could plunge the country into chaos in the same manner the former President of Cote d’l voire , Laurent Gbagbo did when he refused to hand over after he lost the election.

The former President said he was happy that Nigeria has gone beyond the rumour of Interim National Government, and expressed hope that the country will also survive the rumour of handing over to the military.

He explained that the intentional community especially the African Union will neither accommodate nor recognise any government that emerges without the constitution of the country.

According to him, Nigeria has all it takes to dictate pace for other countries in Africa adding that Nigerians should blame themselves for where it is today.

His words: “I do hope we will get things more right. A lot of rumours are flying around I think we have done away from the rumour of Interim Government because that is not in our constitution. I hope we will soon go away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the military is not meant to run affairs of a nation in terms of running government.

“And the intentional community will not condone it, particularly African Union where it is part and parcel of the constituting act of the African Union, that any government that is brought about, not on the basis of the constitution will not be accepted, will not be tolerated and will not be a member of the AU until that government is dismantled.

“It shouldn’t be Nigeria, we are the largest country in Africa, we should be a model, setting examples, we shouldn’t be drawing Africa backward, I hope we will not. I hope at the end of this exercise, we would be where we should be, leading Africa and showing examples for the rest of Africa and indeed the rest of the world.

“We have the goodwill of many people, I watched, last night, President Obama talking about our constitution, I watched our brother from Ghana,  the current Chairman of ECOWAS talked about our constitution, they are all interested, they all wish us well, should we wish ourselves anything less?” he said.

Meanwhile, Obasanjo who also bemoaned hate campaigns among the political parties said political parties should focus more on what unite the country against what divide the country.

He said that, issues of insecurity, economy, employment amongst others should form the focus of the campaigns of political parties.

He however, called on women to take active role to make the country  a better Nigeria adding that they would be the greatest victims should anything go wrong in Nigeria.

Obasanjo said, “I am happy to hear directly from you, Mrs Buhari that the campaign so far, from the assessment has gone very well. May be I should say one or two things about campaign, I do hope that whatever happens at the elections, the one coming this week and the one coming a couple of weeks after that, that we would have learnt the right lessons from what has taken place this time around.