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Obasanjo, his book and Yakubu
Obasanjo who himself was reported to have conducted a flawed election as President, said on page 99 of the book that “politicians do not put much confidence in election which the INEC of Professor Mahmood Yakubu polluted and grossly undermined to make a charade.”
In his latest book, Nigeria: Past and Future, which was unveiled early this year, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, accused Professor Mahmood Yakubu of polluting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the extent that politicians no longer trust INEC.
Obasanjo who himself was reported to have conducted a flawed election as President, said on page 99 of the book that “politicians do not put much confidence in election which the INEC of Professor Mahmood Yakubu polluted and grossly undermined to make a charade.”
The ex-President recounted how he visited a state in the north about 10 years after he left office and the governor of the state pointed to a line of six duplex buildings near the government Guest House all belonging to a judge whom the governor said built the houses from money he made from being Chairman of Election Tribunals.
Obasanjo said there is erosion of confidence in INEC, stating that “most politicians believe in the will of the tribunal judges, court of Appeal judges and Supreme Court judges. No matter what the will of the people may be, the chairman of INEC since after 2015 election has made his will greater and more important than the will of the people.”
He blamed former President Muhammadu Buhari for looking away while INEC and the judges desecrated the electoral processes. He said under Buhari, “there were false declaration of results, making losers winners and winners losers and the victim or the cheated is advised to go to court, which is a court of corruption rather than a court of justice.”
In the book which was unveiled with another titled ‘Lest We Forget: Slavery, Slave Trade, Emancipation, and Reparation’, to mark his 88th birthday, Obasanjo also accused President Bola Tinubu’s government of corruption and financial waste over the N15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
Obasanjo said Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima exemplified financial waste and corruption, describing the highway project measuring 700km as “wasteful and corrupt.”
He deprecated Tinubu for spending N21 billion on a new official residence for VP Shettima, describing it as a misplaced priority designed to embezzle public funds.
“Typical examples of waste, corruption and misplaced priority are the murky Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road on which the president had turned deaf ears to protest… And the new vice-president’s official residence built at a cost of N21 billion in the time of economic hardship to showcase the administration hitting the ground running and to show the importance of the office of the vice-president. What small minds!”
