President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's former leader, has written to the
Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, describing the monarch as a
serial liar and a manipulative rumour monger.
In the letter dated December 30, 2016, Obasanjo described the claims
made about him by Awujale in his autobiography as a tissue of lies.
In the book, entitled “Awujale: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S.
K. Adetona, Ogbagba II”, the Ijebu monarch had accused Baba Obasanjo of
having used the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to blackmail
and extort during his tenure as president.
Obasanjo has now written to Oba Adetona. In the letter obtained by PT,
he said the claims in the book and the spreading of falsehood about him
was unbecoming of a monarch of Awujale's standing.
Read Baba Obasanjo's letter below:
FORMER PRESIDENT OBASANJO’S LETTER
December 30, 2016
His Royal Highness,
Oba Alaiyeluwa S. K. Adetona,
The Awujale & Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland,
Oba Adetona Road,
P. O. Box 263, Ijebu Ode.
The extract from your Autobiography “Awujale: The Autobiography of
Alaiyeluwa Oba S. K. Adetona, Ogbagba II”, published by Mosuro
Publishers 2010, pp. 187-195, which I attach to this letter was
presented to me for my attention.
Your assertion in the publication was a tissue of lies and untruths.
Olopade is one of my best friends and yes, I would be at his birthday
celebration but I would not have invited Mike, your cousin, to meet me
anywhere other than my office or official residence as President of
Nigeria. Kabiyesi, do you think I would set the press up to capture me
and Mike in a photograph for the newspapers? That would be puerile of me
as President. Of course, I could not say that Mike could not do that.
That you think that I, as President of Nigeria, would descend to such
depravity makes me think of you much less than I thought of you, until
now.
The invitation to Mike to contribute to the building of the Library
block of Bells University was issued to him by the then Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Julius Okogie, who never told me about inviting Mike to so
contribute until Mike pulled out. And that I have not and I will not
talk to Mike about it should convince you that I know nothing about its
genesis.
Under my watch, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was free
to do its job as it saw fit. Common sense would suggest that wild
rumours should not be perpetrated by an Oba of your calibre. Kabiyesi,
your cousin did not tell you that My Chief of Staff, Abdul Mohammed, put
his reputation on line by assuring EFCC that Mike would go nowhere and
they should trust him to give him his passport. I did not even know that
Abdul had done that until the Chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, reported
the case of my Chief of Staff seemingly colluding with Mike to run out
of the country. But I had implicit confidence in my Chief of Staff and I
was to resolve the issue. Should your cousin not have mentioned to
Abdul who guaranteed the release of his passport his fears and intention
to go on exile?
On several occasions, Nuhu Ribadu has asserted that, under my watch, he
was a free agent to do his work as he deemed fit. Where it was
necessary, he reported the outcome of his work to me and the subsequent
or follow-up actions he intended to take. On no occasion did I guide,
lead or direct him on what to do.
Mike did not need to send anything to me to satisfy me, he needed to
satisfy EFCC and so your sending any documents to me was insinuating
that I am the one to be satisfied rather than the EFCC. So, such
documents were not paid any attention by me. You, as the cousin and part
beneficiary from Mike as you have told me in the past, would not be
able to see the tree from the forest as far as the mode of operation of
Nuhu Ribadu was concerned viz-a-viz Mike. If the EFCC was investigating
anybody, I did not consider it right for me as the President of Nigeria
to be undermining EFCC by hobnobbing with that person. EFCC must be
given free hand to do its work. Even if such a person was my child, the
best I could do would be to secure a good lawyer to handle the matter
before the EFCC for that child.
It is not only in the case of Obajana Cement that you were
rumour-mongering about me. You have done that repeatedly on many
occasions. The latest one you did in 2016 was you telling me that you
heard that I had gone to Rasak Okoya to seek to marry her daughter,
Abiola, when it was the girl that came to appeal to me to intervene to
placate and appeal to her father to forgive her for all her misbehaviour
to her father. I did and the father and daughter were reconciled. I
told you even then that it was unbecoming of an Oba. Of course, I am
used to such rumours, slandering and insinuations since my days as a
Unit Commander in the Army and I have developed thick skin. If ten per
cent of the rumours ascribing businesses and properties I know nothing
about were true, I would be the richest man on earth.
But recently, when Aliko, yourself and myself were together, Aliko
assured you that I never ever had a single share in any of Aliko’s
business interests but whenever he has called on me to help within and
without to promote his business interest, I have always helped and I
will always do because that is part of my job as a Nigerian leader – to
help Nigerians grow their businesses or interests – and I have done that
for other Nigerians and indeed for non-Nigerians, Africans and
non-Africans who have requested me for help.
It was revealing to me on that occasion when Aliko made the point that
one of his directors on his cement company is somebody very close to
you.
I owed nobody any apologies in the course of doing my work as I believe I
should do it or in the course of defending the interest of Nigeria and
defending my integrity. As I could not open the treasury for S. O.
Bakare for your so-called political support to me, I did not regard that
as an offence. To the extent that I believed and regarded as proper, I
instructed Tony Anenih as Minister of Works to patronize S. O. Bakare as
a Peugeot car dealer. I will not comment on Atiku issue that you
touched upon in your book because I have dealt with that elsewhere and
you were only dabbling into an area where and thing you are absolutely
ignorant about.
All that you wanted me to do in respect of Mike was improper whether
when I was President or when I was out of office. I must not be seen to
be in the way of allowing law to take its natural course. All I should
do is to help the course of the law and help secure a good lawyer to
help the process.
It is of interest to me that Mike did not tell you that when he wanted
national honour, he came to me and I did not react until Babangida
recommended him and said, “Of all those I have helped, Mike is one of
the most appreciative.”
Kabiyesi, if I have squandered all the goodwill I had, you would not
have contacted me on behalf of All Progressive Party, APC, to receive
them in 2014 and you would not have been personally present when I
received them as I demanded. I probably have greater goodwill today
internally and externally than I had in office.
Kabiyesi, the total sum of what you have put down in those pages of your
book is that I dislike Mike. Maybe I need to remind you that if there
was any iota of truth in such a position or mindset, Mike would not have
been granted the mobile telephone licence which made him a billionaire.
It was my prerogative as the President so to do. You may also be
reminded that in the first round of the auction which Mike did not make,
the country earned US$285 million for each licence. The country earned
only US$200 million from the licence transaction with Mike and in the
subsequent transaction with Etisalat, the country earned US$400 million.
It was a deliberate action on my part that a Nigerian should own one of
the licences. Anybody else but Mike could have been that Nigerian.
Kabiyesi, the type of hate propaganda you have tried to project in that
section of your book against my person is grossly unbecoming of an Oba
let alone an Oba of your status and stature.
However, I still accord you the respect which I believe an Oba should be
accorded and one for that matter who I presume to be a friend. In spite
of your unfortunate projection, my position remains the same – respect
for you as an Oba and a friend.
Kabiyesi, I believe that I should set the record straight for posterity
and to caution you from engaging in unedifying rumour-mongering and
untruth. Accept the assurances of my highest consideration.
- OLUSEGUN OBASANJO
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
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