Jonathan Should Reply Obasanjo With Performance- Legal Practitioner

A Lagos-based legal practitioner and public affairs analyst, Liborous Oshoma has termed as baseless the call on President Goodluck Jonathan to respond to the letter written by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, insisting that the former president should “first and foremost apologise to Nigerians before writing such a letter to the sitting president”.

He said the “messenger is equal to the message” insisting that he will not take the contents of the message seriously because of the antecedents of the former president.

He also said “it is all about the 2015 elections and we know” adding that “with the recent visit of the ‘progressives’ to the former president, we are now beginning to see the drummer” noting that “we have been seeing the dancers, now we know where the drum beat is coming from”.

When his attention was called to the fact that the leaked letter was not the first or second written by the former president to the sitting president, he said “Audu Ogbeh wrote a letter to him, what became of him? Adding that “the same man appointed ministers and special advisers and told them you can advise me but it doesn’t mean I will take your advice”

He advised the federal government to make visible a “departure from what we know” adding that “we want to see the current government truly interested in fighting corruption, truly eradicating poverty and we want to see security improved”.

He overlooked the potency of the opposition to do better than the current government noting that the $2.8 billion missing oil funds mentioned by afro beat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, in one of his songs, got missing under General Muhammadu Buhari as petroleum minister in Obasanjo’s 1976-1979 regime.

He added that “what you have is a clash of the ruling class. Some believe we imposed this man on you people and since he is not dancing to our tune, we will begin to magnify these things that have been there so as to begin to curry favour from the people”.

He urged Nigerians not to benchmark performance by the persons in power but by “normal standards”.

He called on President Jonathan to “align with the masses” adding that “he rode on the crest of goodwill” to become president, recalling a plethora of Jonathan campaign slogans.

Oshomo, who appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s flagship breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, said issues raised in the letter written by the former president Obasanjo have been in existence since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999 except the allegations of “training snipers” which he called on Obasanjo to prove or “hold his peace”