The allegation of training snipers to assassinate political opponents is particularly incomprehensible to me – President
President Goodluck Jonathan on
Sunday formally replied the 18-page letter written to him by former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying it was a threat national security.
Unlike Obasanjo’s letter which was dated
December 2 but leaked to the press on December 11, Jonathan’s letter
was made available to journalists by his(Jonathan) Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati in Abuja.
In the letter titled “Re: Before It is
too Late,” an obviously angry Jonathan said the former President did him
grave injustice with the open letter in which he was accused of deceit,
deception, dishonesty, incompetence, clannishness, divisiveness and
insincerity, amongst other ills.
He gave 10 reasons why he chose to make
his own letter public. One of them, according to him, is because
Obasanjo’s letter is clearly a threat to national security, as it may
deliberately or inadvertently set the stage for subversion.
“The third reason why I must reply you
in writing is that your letter is clearly a threat to national security
as it may deliberately or inadvertently set the stage for subversion,”
Jonathan said in the letter which Abati also streamed on his facebook
account, twitter handle and his personal website: www.reubenabati.com.ng.
In the letter, the President said it
appeared to him that Obasanjo’s letter was designed to incite Nigerians
from other geopolitical zones against him and also calculated to promote
ethnic disharmony.
He added that the former President’s
letter was also designed to instigate members of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party against him.
The President said he had already
directed security agencies and the National Human Rights Commission to
investigate Obasanjo’s allegations and make their findings public.
While explaining the efforts so far made
by his administration to address the issue of insecurity in parts of
the country, the President recalled that the seeds of the present
precarious situation were sown under previous administrations.
He claimed that those who have
continued to downplay his administration’s efforts at restoring peace,
including Obasanjo, seemed to have forgotten the depth in which the
nation had fallen into before now.
He wrote, “You(Obasanjo) raised concerns
about the security situation in the country. I assure you that I am
fully aware of the responsibility of government for ensuring the
security of the lives and property of citizens.
“My administration is working
assiduously to overcome current national security challenges, the seeds
of which were sown under previous administrations. There have been some
setbacks; but certainly there have also been great successes in our
efforts to overcome terrorism and insurgency.
“Those who continue to downplay our
successes in this regard, amongst whom you must now be numbered, appear
to have conveniently forgotten the depths to which security in our
country had plunged before now.
“At a stage, almost the entire
North-East was under siege by insurgents. Bombings of churches and
public buildings in the North and the federal capital became an almost
weekly occurrence. Our entire national security apparatus seemed
nonplussed and unable to come to grips with the new threat posed by the
berthing of terrorism on our shores.
“But my administration has since brought
that very unacceptable situation under significant control. We have
overhauled our entire national security architecture, improved
intelligence gathering, training, funding, logistical support to our
armed forces and security agencies, and security collaboration with
friendly countries with very visible and positive results.
“The scope and impact of terrorist
operations have been significantly reduced and efforts are underway to
restore full normalcy to the most affected North Eastern region and
initiate a post-crisis development agenda, including a special
intervention programme to boost the region’s socio-economic progress.
“In doing all this, we have kept our
doors open for dialogue with the insurgents and their supporters through
efforts such as the work of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and
the Peaceful Resolution of the Security Challenges in the North-East.
“You also know that the Governor of
Borno State provided the items you mentioned to me as carrots. Having
done all this and more, it is interesting that you still accuse me of
not acting on your hardly original recommendation that the carrot and
stick option be deployed to solve the Boko Haram problem.
“Your suggestion that we are pursuing a
‘war against violence without understanding the root causes of the
violence and applying solutions to deal with all the underlying
factors’ is definitely misplaced because from the outset of this
administration, we have been implementing a multifaceted strategy
against militancy, insurgency and terrorism that includes poverty
alleviation, economic development, education and social reforms.”
On the allegation that he was training
snipers to assassinate about 1,000 people who had already been placed
under watch, Jonathan described it as the most invidious.
He said since he started his political
career as a deputy governor, he had never been associated with any form
of political violence.
While admitting that there had been
cases of political assassinations since the beginning of the Fourth
Republic, he said none of them occurred under his leadership.
Jonathan said if Obasanjo insisted on
the spurious claim that some of his relatives and friends were being
harassed, he should name them and tell Nigerians what agencies of his
administration were harassing them.
He wrote, “Perhaps the most invidious
accusation in your letter is the allegation that I have placed over one
thousand Nigerians on a political watch list, and that I am training
snipers and other militia to assassinate people. Baba, I don’t know
where you got that from but you do me grave injustice in not only
lending credence to such baseless rumours, but also publicising it. You
mentioned God 17 times in your letter. Can you, as a Christian, hold
the Bible and say that you truly believe this allegation?
“The allegation of training snipers to
assassinate political opponents is particularly incomprehensible to me.
Since I started my political career as a deputy governor, I have never
been associated with any form of political violence. I have been a
President for over three years now, with a lot of challenges and
opposition mainly from the high and mighty. Read more
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