OBASANJO RESIGNS from PDP | Chairman Writes

NATIONAL MIRROR - At a time when
Nigerians had thought that the season
of controversy- stirring letters among
key political players, particularly,
leaders of the country, is over, another
bombshell has been released.
Again, it is coming from former
president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
The latest letter is not, as many may
have expected, to the incumbent,
President Goodluck Jonathan, but to
the chairman of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party to which he belongs,
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. According to
reliable sources, in the one-page letter
written on Thursday, a copy of which
was sent to the president, Obasanjo
declared that he would, temporarily,
cease to be a member of the party or
participate in any political activities at
any level.
His decision, he said, is hinged on what
he described as the handing over of
the authority of the party, in the South-
West, and particularly, his home state,
Ogun, to the chairman of the South
West PDP Mobilisation and Organisation
Committee, Buruji Kashamu. Declaring
Kashamu as unfit for any leadership
post in the party, he described him as
a drug baron who has cases to answer
in the United States of America. The
sources said the former president said
with such a person as Kashamu in the
leadership position of the party, he had
no choice but to opt out pending when
the anomaly, among others, is
corrected.
To buttress his point, the sources said,
Obasanjo attached some documents to
prove his claim that Kashamu is indeed
a drug baron. It would be recalled that
the "season of letters" was opened
recently by Obasanjo, in a missive to
Jonathan. In the letter which blew the
frosty relationship between him and
Jonathan into the open, Obasanjo
accused the president of ineptitude,
promoting corruption and pursuing
agenda that could destroy the country.
The 18-page letter is titled "Before it is
too late" and dated December 2, 2013.
In the letter, Obasanjo also lamented
that Jonathan had become terribly
divisive and clannish, destroying his
own party, polarising the country along
regional and religious lines and
ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of
nations. He also blamed Jonathan for
the crises tearing the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, apart., noting
that apart from using party chairman,
Bamanga Tukur, to cause multiple
crises and divide the ranks of the party,
the president's failure to keep a
promise he made not to seek a second
term is also generating tension within
the ruling party.
The former president also accused
Jonathan of placing over 1000
Nigerians on political watch list and
allegedly "training snipers and other
armed personnel secretly and
clandestinely acquiring weapons to
match for political purposes like Abacha
and training them where Abacha
trained his killers." Obasanjo, in his
letter also took a swipe at the chairman
of South-West Peoples Democratic
Party's (PDP) Mobilisation and
Organisation Committee, Buruji
Kashamu, and many others.
In a quick response, President
Jonathan, while formally replying to the
'open letter' written to him by
Obasanjo in a letter entitled;"Re: Before
it is too late" dated December 20,
which was also made public on Sunday
December 22, expressed his views on
many issues raised by Obasanjo. He
noted that the former president's letter
was clearly a threat to national security
which could set the stage for
subversion.
Apart from Jonathan, Bamangar Tukur
and Buruji Kashamu, also wrote several
letters to Obasanjo to clarify some of
the issues raised against them in
Obasanjo's controversial letter. The
exchange of letters between the two
leaders in the last few weeks has been
generating serious issues in the
country, with many people calling for
peace between Obasanjo and Jonathan
in the interest of the country.
The Board of Trustees of the PDP
promised to intervene in the crises and
many other prominent Nigerians have
alsobeen reported to have implored the
two leaders to sheath their swords.