The Sun News On-line

Northern military leaders who forced the candidature of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on the rest of the country in 1999 committed a fundamental error of judgment, according to a former military intelligence officer and spokesman of General Ibrahim Babangida, Captain Sagir Mohammed (retd).

Mohammed, in an interview with Daily Sun, noted that the North had rooted for an Obasanjo presidency in 1999 based on his antecedent as a global statesman. That error of judgment, he insisted, however, was committed in good faith.

He said: “The Obasanjo we knew then in 1999 was the Obasanjo who was a statesman. “So his antecedent as a military head of state made us to choose him to lead the country ahead of others who were equally qualified. It made us to assume that he could unite the country.

And I do agree that this is an error of judgment, but the error was done in good faith. If you were looking for a President of Nigeria from the South-West, as at that time, considering all the peculiarities and variables, you would, most probably, have considered Obasanjo. You would not have imagined that Obasanjo would ever grow to become what he became.”

Mohammed also dismissed insinuations in certain quarters that past military leaders, not Obasanjo, should earn the blame for the monumental failure of the past administration.
In his view, no past leader in the country had plundered the nation’s resources as much as Obasanjo.
“In the history of Nigeria, dating back to 1914 when we were amalgamated, there has never been any administration, any president or any head of state, that has plundered, that has decimated the resources of this country, the entire economy of this country and our social well-being, like ex-President Obasanjo,” he stated.

He recalled alerting Nigerians in 1999 that the nation was doomed following Obasanjo’s swearing-in, a prediction he said had since come to pass, especially with the recent revelations that several shady deals were perpetrated by the past administration.
The spokesman for General Babangida urged the present administration to ensure that Obasanjo is brought before Nigerians, to answer questions on his administration’s eight years in power.
He called on President Umar Yar’Adua not to go back on his vow to ensure that anyone who runs foul of the law will be made to face the consequences, even as he expressed optimism that Obasanjo’s day in court was near.

On allegations that northern military leaders have been too soft on the current administration, Mohammed noted that the president is still at the Supreme Court fighting to retain his presidency. He observed, however, that Yar’Adua had already upturned some of Obasanjo’s policies.
His words: “There was an election in the country. Yar’Adua won the election. There was a case in the tribunal. He won. I am not here to define the efficacy of the law. It is left for the judiciary to do so.

However, beyond that, let us note that Obasanjo, having put Yar’Adua as the president, is now realizing that Yar’Adua is not the dummy he thought he was. Things that he did before, Yar’Adua has immediately reversed. So you find out that, gradually, they are unraveling the commotion that Obasanjo has put the country into in the last eight years.”
While admitting that Yar’Adua is too slow in confronting some issues, Mohammed said the president was still taking his time.

“You should know that he takes his time to encapsulate his position and by the time he comes out with his position, you find that they are proper,” he said.
He, however, agreed that the president needed to move faster, even as he noted that running a state successfully was different from running a nation, as large and complex as Nigeria.