In a recent report by Punch, former President Olusegun Obasanjo while meeting with a group of journalists at his Hilltop presidential residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State over the weekend reportedly said that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has a grand plan to scuttle the elections as he is scared that if All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari wins the elections and succeeds him, he would be sent to jail by Buhari. This comes after Obasanjo publicly endorsed Buhari, (click here if you missed it) and Nobel laureate and playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka, also warned President Jonathan in a letter sent to a Punch correspondent not to disrupt the current democratic dispensation using security agencies.
“I believe the President’s fear is particularly motivated by whom he sees as his likely successor, that is, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. I believe people would have been telling him that Buhari is a hard man; he will fight corruption and he (Jonathan) may end up in jail if not in the grave. I think people would have told him that sort of thing and he is not the only one afraid of Buhari,” said Obasanjo.
Obasanjo then continues saying Buhari should have learnt his lessons and might actually not be contemplating sending people to jail in an attempt to fight corruption.
“If he has not learnt his lessons, he would be probably the most unlearning human being. Now if he has learnt his lessons, he will know that you do not fight corruption by putting people in jail for 200 years. This was done by my predecessor in office, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. He recovered over $750m from Abacha’s estate without putting anybody in jail and without harming or hurting anybody.
“When I took over, we recovered over $1.25bn from the same Abacha without hurting anybody and without harming anybody. What is rather unfortunate is the fact that our lawyer who is still alive, who was chasing this money all over the world, said to us that there was still well over $1bn to be recovered from the Abacha estate.”
