Presidency Tackles Obasanjo Over Rivers’ State of Emergency

By Adedapo Adesanya

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come under fire from the camp of President Bola Tinubu over his criticism of the latter’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.

President Tinubu’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Mr Olusegun Dada, regarded the former president as “Nigeria’s grandfather of hypocrisy trying to whitewash his bad democratic records.”

While commenting on the Rivers issue in Abuja on Monday, Mr Obasanjo said, “Democracy is not about power grabbing illegally and telling victims to go to court.”

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in what appears to be a rebuttal, Mr Dada stated that the former president is attempting to exonerate himself from blame for how bad the nation’s democracy has become.

“Coming to Obasanjo’s remarks at the Ihedioha Colloquium, it is obvious that OBJ is trying every trick possible to whitewash his bad democratic records by trying to exonerate himself from blame for how Nigeria’s democracy has fared.

“It is shocking to many who were adults during the Obasanjo 1999-2007 era to hear OBJ preaching that democracy is not about power grabbing illegally and telling victims to go to court. He even said democracy is dying in Nigeria.

“This is the same OBJ that turned himself into a kingmaker and a demigod in his second term in office between 2003-2004. Anybody who disagreed with him became prey.

“Obasanjo is simply the grandfather of hypocrisy in Nigeria at the moment.

“This is an OBJ who worked with his then VP, Atiku Abubakar to steal opposition states for PDP thanks to their job man, Prof. Maurice Iwu who was INEC Chairman.

“OBJ made sure incumbent governors of Ekiti, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, and Oyo states who all belonged to AD were rigged out using federal might. Only Lagos survived the rigging onslaught.

“Atiku himself later willingly confessed publicly how they spared only Lagos governed by Bola Tinubu in the South West that was formerly controlled by AD as of 1999,” Mr Dada’s post read.