Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday in Lagos delivered another salvo at President Goodluck Jonathan telling a group of people that President Jonathan never listens to advice and suggestions from people who could assist his government.
This, he said, was the reason he had taken to public messages and criticisms of the President since Jonathan does not have listening ears.
Obasanjo said this at the presentation of his memoirs with the title: ‘My Watch‘ in which he criticised some leaders of the country including former Governor Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and others.
Obasanjo, who took time to answer questions from the audience, said since the President had decided not to have receptive ears, he also decided to seek other means of reaching him.
Explaining further, he said some of the letters he had written privately to Jonathan were included in the new book. He also noted tha he described his frustration at the futility of getting the President to listen and respond or seek answers to issues brought before him.
“when I was president, I had my predecessors who would come to me, some with written notes and I would give answers and react and if I cannot give answers and react there immediately, I will say: ‘give me time, let me do something’ and I would react,” Obasanjo said.
“That’s the way I believe it should be. He should be able to come, talk to me and I give you an answer. You would see in the book some of my reactions in the past.
“So if you have audience but you have no receptive ears, then you must have another way of communication. That’s what has happened.”
Obasanjo expressed disappointment at the constant accusation from a section of Nigerians that he is responsible for the leadership challenge the country is facing since he is the one who brought the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and Jonathan to government.
He agreed that he was part of those who made the duo presidents, that should not have made any of them fail the country.
He said this failure should rather be what people should talk about and condemn so that their successors would learn not to fail. He said he would be very worried if future leaders of the country refused to learn from sthe mistake of their predecessors.
He also recalled how he brought youths into his government saying many of them assisted him to achieve the level of success he achieved even though there were some bad ones among them.
These bad ones, he said, would be revealed on a later date.
The former President also said he had not gone against the court injunction secured by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Buruji Kashamu, which ruled against publishing the book.
A court had ruled last week that the book should not be published as it had damaging write-ups against Kashamu, who had been in a long-drawn battle with Obasanjo and who the United States of America had declared wanted in connection with drugs.
Obasanjo said the judge that granted the injunction should have been sanctioned if Nigeria was a sane country.
He wondered how a judge could grant an injunction at 5pm after the official hours of work in Nigeria. He also said hearing in the case was slated for Tuesday which had been fixed for the presentation of the book.
He said the book had been printed and published before Kashamu went to court.
“Even the judge who gave him that order, in a normal society, a strong judiciary, he should be sanctioned and I hope something would happen,” he said.
“Another thing you don’t know is that the man went to court and today (the day the book was presented) was fixed for hearing. After that, he went to another judge to get injunction at 5pm on Friday. What is that?”
Obasanjo who described himself as an incurable optimist that Nigeria would bounce back despite its challenges, urged the youths of the country to learn to read books a lot since that is one of the surest ways they could emerge as leaders of the country.
He lamented the poor reading culture among the people of the country saying the proliferation of social media has become Nigeria’s greatest challenge.
He said he understood the desperation among the youths for things to become better. He however advised that the desperation should not result in criminal activities while asking them to always be conscious that God is a Nigerian.
Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and other prominent Nigerians at event urged Nigerians to begin to take their destinies in their hands and demand for accountability from those who govern them.
