The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, on Monday in Abuja dared former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his 13-page statement asking President Muhammadu Buhari to forget a re-election in 2019 over perceived failure, describing the former president as a man who enjoys sensationalism.
Shittu, who dared to tread where even Buhari trod with caution by responding to Obasanjo’s criticism of his administration with a sense of maturity, threw caution to the wind, accusing the former president of cultivating the habit of criticising every government in the past three decades except his own.
According to the minister who addressed journalists in the State House, only the late former draconian Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, foiled Obasanjo’s imminent criticism by him and swiftly sent him to prison.
He said even though Obasanjo was entitled to his own opinion, he had no right to decide who contests election or not in the All Progressives Congress (APC), emphasising that such a suggestion was beyond him.
Shittu who was stopped by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, from distributing Buhari’s re-election campaign fez caps during last week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, stopped short of describing Obasanjo as ill-educated” saying “Let’s talk like people who are educated.’
Shittu said: “Obasanjo as a Nigerian has the right to hold an opinion. If Obasanjo holds an opinion that the president has performed less than it should be, those of us who are in the position to know better have a right to also state the other side which perhaps Obasanjo is ignorant of.
“You see, there are some people who enjoy engaging in sensationalism. With due respect to Obasanjo, if you take his history over the last 30 years, there is hardly any regime other than his own that he did not criticise except Sani Abacha, who didn’t wait for Obasanjo to criticise him before he was sent to the gulag.
“So many Nigerians know that Obasanjo enjoys this type of sensationalisation. In any case, no matter what impression you have of me, do you have a right to tell me not to contest an election? I mean we should talk like people who are educated, who know our left from the right.
“There are procedures for elections. President Buhari is a member of the APC and the APC has its rules and regulations as to how candidates will emerge. If members of the party feel that the president has not performed well it is for them to show that during the primary election. It is not for anybody to short-change Nigerians and prevent people from offering themselves for an election.
“In any case, since Obasanjo is no more a member of our party, with due respect to him, it doesn’t lie in his mouth to tell us who among our party members or leaders to contest or not to contest. I think Nigerians should concede this privilege to the members of APC to decide the fate of the president when the next round of primaries come.”
Questioned if his persistent campaign for Buhari’s re-election was not a violation of Section 90 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which prohibits any form of campaigns earlier than 90 days to the general election, Shittu who is also a lawyer, boasted that distributing campaign materials and mobilising for expression of interest were not synonymous with campaigning.
He also said the recent opening of South-west Zonal Office of the Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group was not a campaign rather its a preparation for forthcoming campaigns.
“It is true that the constitution and the electoral law states campaigns start 90 days before elections, but there is no law stopping announcing intentions. There is a difference between campaigns and intentions.“
This organisation has been in existence for more than six years. So, if it did not have a presence in the South-west, and now because they appointed me as Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) and I feel that as a serious minded person, we need to have a presence in the South-west in preparation for the campaigns, I don’t see what is wrong with that.
“What is more important is that it also afforded us an opportunity to launch a booklet titled: ‘A compilation of the achievements of the Buhari administration’, so that Nigerians will have verifiable facts in hard copy in their hands.
“So, I plead not guilty to the issue of starting campaign before time. The best thing we could say is that it has been a pronouncement of intention. The man himself has not declared but we are saying we will persuade him to declare his intention at the appropriate time and we are going to support him,” he said. – Thisday.
