Ex-President warns against handing over to military

monjola sotubo

March 25, 2015 7:39 AM

Obasanjo also expressed his relief that the country seemed to have abandoned the idea of an Interim National Government.

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has warned against attempts to hand over power to the military.

The former President stated this during a meeting with South-West women members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at his home in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The women were led by Aisha Buhari, the wife of APC Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

“I do hope we will get things more right. A lot of rumours are flying around, I think we have gone away from the rumour of interim government because that is not in our constitution,” Obasanjo said.

“I hope we will soon go away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the military is not meant to run affairs of a nation in terms of running government,” he added.

The former President also said that the international community wouldn’t condone such a mistake.

“The international community will not condone it, particularly African Union, where we have a situation. We have said and it is part and parcel of the constituting act of the African Union. Any government that is brought about, not on the basis of the constitution, will not be accepted, will not be tolerated and will not be a member of the AU until that government is dismantled,” Obasanjo said.

“It shouldn’t be. We are the largest country in Africa. We should be a model, setting examples; we shouldn’t be drawing Africa backward. I hope we will not. I hope at the end of this exercise, we would be where we should be, leading Africa and showing examples for the rest of Africa and indeed the rest of the world,” he added.

“We have the goodwill of many people. I watched last night, President (Barack) Obama talking about our constitution. I watched out brother from Ghana, the current Chairman of ECOWAS, talked about our constitution. They are all interested, they all wish us well. Should we wish ourselves anything less?” Obasanjo said.

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has also stated that there are plans for a military takeover with a civilian appearance in Nigeria.

monjola sotubo