Abdulsalami didn’t want OBJ to run for 2nd term -Wikileaks

Posted by admin Latest Politics Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

FOUR years after leaving office, it has been revealed that the second term ambition of former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2003, did not receive the blessings of some people in certain quarters, as the Nigerian Tribune gathered that former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abu-bakar, was not in support of the ambition.

According to a United States (US) diplomatic report released by Wikileaks, on Sunday, though Abdul-salami handed over the reins of government to Obasanjo in 1999, he had never wanted the latter to run for a second term in office.

It was gathered that Abdulsalami’s grouse with Obasanjo, which the US Ambassador, Howard Jeter, was privy to, had to do with the alleged poor performance of Obasanjo in office during the twilight of his first term in office.

The former head of state was said to have told Ambassador Jeter during a breakfast meeting that though Obasanjo meant well, his sincere intentions had been betrayed by the manner and decisions that had alienated many of his supporters.

With his alleged waning popularity in the North-West and South-East, the former head of state had hoped Obasanjo would follow the example of former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and would not seek a second term.

However, Abdulsalami, according to the Wikileaks report, described Obasanjo as having the best interests of Nigeria at heart, as he said there was no other figure who could have assumed the presidency in 1999 other than him.

The original plan, according to the report, was that Obasanjo’s task, when he was elected in 1999, was to advance the democratic transition which the election was believed to have set in motion, but it was reported that Obasanjo was operating on multiple fronts, dealing with too many issues simultaneously.wp_posts