OBASANJO PLEDGES LOYALTY TO JONATHAN’S GOVERNMENT

• Accuses Media Of Stirring Controversy

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, at the weekend, pledged loyalty to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and accused the Nigerian media of focusing more on negative issues than on the positive.

He insisted that as Nigerian and former President, he remains the subject of the incumbent,  “The President and I,” he said, “have no quarrel; he is my President; I am his subject. Simple!”

Obasanjo was guest at a dinner and dance party organised by industrialist, Olusegun Osunkeye, and his wife Abosede, to mark the 80th Birthday anniversaries of Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Dr Christopher Kolade at the Metropolitan Club, Lagos.

His insistence on cordial relationship comes against the backdrop of his consistent criticisms of the way the nation’s security and other challenges are being managed in the last few years.  Hours before arriving Lagos for the event, Obasanjo had paid a courtesy visit to Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, in Benin City, after which he reportedly stressed that those in charge were not doing enough to curb the scourges of security and corruption.

But, in Lagos, Obasanjo parried questions, from The Guardian, regarding his reported frosty relationship and subsequent fence-mending moves with Jonathan, and insisted that the London meeting with African presidents, including Jonathan, for the inauguration of the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation (OOF) was on his own invitation and did not have any political undertones.

Accusing the media of dwelling so much on perceived negative occurrences, Obasanjo said: “Whatever is good is no news; what is adverse is news; so, even when there are no adverse news, you create them. The President and I have no quarrels.”

The former President, however, declined to speak further on the Foundation, saying that details of the project were already in the public domain.

“It is an Africa-wide event, and President Jonathan was there, just like any other Presidents. The president of Ghana was there; the President of Liberia was there; the President of Benin Republic was there; and President Ali Bongo, who couldn’t be there, sent a video.”

He also insisted that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) remains stable and free from any form of challenge, saying the word, “challenge,” did not, in any way, describe the party’s experience. “If you are not putting challenge before the PDP, then, don’t talk of challenge,” he patronizingly advised.

Source: Guardian