Nearly a year after his daughter, Iyabo, wrote a well-publicised open letter to him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has replied her, alleging that she was induced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to write the stinker.
In portions of his latest memoirs, My Watch, seen in advance by TheCable, Obasanjo said he had been warned that “this administration” was attempting to induce two of his daughters to do a “dirty job” and that he warned both of them against it.
Obasanjo said Iyabo succumbed to the advances because of “her character” and “the influence of her mother” – who is the retired general’s first wife.
In her letter, Iyabo, a former commissioner in Ogun state and former senator, recounted Obasanjo’s failings as a father and questioned his moral right to criticise others.
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“This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs,” she wrote.
Click here to read Iyabo Obasanjo’s open letter to her father
Obasanjo had written a highly critical letter to Jonathan titled “Before It Is Too Late” in which he raised issues about insecurity and corruption in the country.
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He wrote: “You must hold yourself most significantly responsible for what happens or fails to happen in Nigeria and in any case, most others will hold you responsible and God who put you there will surely hold you responsible and accountable.”
Obasanjo further repeated an allegation that Jonathan was training snipers to kill his political opponents.
Click here to read Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan
He had remained silent since Iyabo’s open letter to him was published in the medai, but has now responded in volume one of the three-volume memoirs.
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Obasanjo wrote: “I got a warning that this administration was attempting to induce two of my daughters, including Iyabo, to do a dirty job. I warned them both against it, but because of her character, the influence of her mother and her attitude, Iyabo succumbed; the other daughter did not.
“I was warned about a former minister of finance, who wrote the reply for Jonathan, and about the writer of the letter to which E. K. Clark appended his signature. Iyabo’s letter and the response to it has been treated as a family issue, so that all the members of the family can be equipped with the other side of the story from me for posterity.
“If Iyabo was childish and unwise enough to allow herself to be used, no other member of the family should allow himself or herself to be so used. Tolerance and acceptance of others must be practised in the face of any provocation, no matter how vile.”
Obasanjo has previously been openly accused of incest and adultery by his son, Gbenga, who sought to divorce his wife alleging that his father was sleeping with her.
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The former president, meanwhile, said a “cabal” surrounding late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adau framed corruption charges against Iyabo when she was a senator in order to get back at him because of his personal views against them.
“My adversaries tried other means to get to me,” he stated.
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“If Obasanjo could not be cut down to size, they must have thought, what about those close to him, including his daughter? When Senator Iyabo, my daughter, was accused of corruption, I took my time to have a serious interview with her on what exactly had transpired. She briefed me in detail and I was satisfied.
“But I did not stop there. I spoke with the Senate President, who also briefed me and assured me that Iyabo had not committed any offence as he had personally looked into the matter. I was again reassured but did not stop there. I talked to another senator, Mrs. Ekaette, who was a member of the health committee of which Iyabo was chairman. Mrs. Ekaette again satisfied me with her explanation. I was advised to talk to President Yar’Adua but I refused to do this, especially as I was told he was expecting me to. Instead, I advised Iyabo to hand the matter over to Chief Afe Babalola, a lawyer and friend, to deal with it through the court process. She was discharged and acquitted by the court.
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“The fact that my ordeal, and that of my daughter, occurred under the administration of President Yar’Adua, who was brought into power by God through me, did not surprise me. I have always held to a belief that any person who expects commendation, praise, eulogy, or credit from any human being might die a frustrated wretch.”
He named some members of the “cabal” as Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi and Baba Kingibe “aided and supported by two governors – Bukola Saraki and James Ibori – for their own personal and selfish reasons”.
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9 comments
Fyi
Baba wrote, “…any person who expects commendation, praise, eulogy, or credit from any human being might die a frustrated wretch…” How very poignant. May Allah grant you peaceful and prosperous time while you are still here. No one is an angel.
ninja,
your daughter is too learned and wealthy to be induced by any gorilla……………try another line…. refined old liar……….
I just hope Iyabo will not be ignited to write another poisonous letter to her dad in defence of her side of the whole story? Let the spree continue, please.
I’ll never touch this memoir with a 100000000000 meter pole. A heap of garbage fron an egomaniac. Let this man stay away from Nigerian political stage so we can continue the transformative reconstruction of Nigeria from the rot he and his cohorts/generation bequeathed on us.
OBASANJO IN VIOLATION OF A COURT ORDER. ARREST WARRANT IS BEING ISSUED AGAINST HIM,
An Abuja High Court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, has restrained Obasanjo from proceeding with plans to publish or have someone publish on his behalf, a new autobiography entitled ‘My Watch.”
Justice Valentine Ashi made the order following an ex-parte application filed before him by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-West, Mr. Buruji Kashamu.
The court granted the motion marked FCT/HC/M/2392/2014, on Friday, after it listened to Kashamu’s lawyer, Dr. Alex Iziyon, SAN.
He said the content of the book relates to issues in the letter Obasanjo wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan on December 2, 2013, where he stated that
Kashamu was a fugitive wanted in the United States of America. He contended that since the content of the letter is the subject matter of the libel suit his client filed against Obasanjo, which is still pending before the high court, it would be wrong for the ex-president to be allowed to proceed to comment on, write books about or make publications on the issue yet to be decided by the court.
The ruling
While delivering his ruling on the matter, Justice Ashi specifically restrained ex-President Obasanjo from either publishing the book or have it published on his behalf by anybody, pending the determination of the substantive suit pending before him.
According to the court, “the defendant, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, whether by himself, his agents, servants, privies or any other person by whatever name called and howsoever described, is hereby restrained from publishing or caused to be published in the yet to published book, ‘My watch’ or any autobiography or biography and any extracts of same, by whatever name called or howsoever titled, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice hereof.”
Obasanjo had, in his reply to Kashamu’s case in court, stated that, “Aside the plaintiff’s illicit drug business for which he was indicted and wanted in America, the plaintiff has penchant for taking loans from unsuspecting banks/financial institutions with intention to permanently elude/avoid repayment or liquidation of such loans.
“Further to that, the plaintiff has been judicially adjudged/confirmed a debtor by a competent court of law in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. And the plaintiff presently occupies a choice position on the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria’s list of notorious bad debtors.
“The plaintiff is a person, who with his true name/identity supplied, will not be granted visa by the German government or any country of the world having good relationship with the United States of America.”
OBASANJO
IS A LIAR
Obasanjo should please leave Nigeria alone, let’s focus on the amendment of the corruption he has brought about in Nigeria. If your own daughter whom you brought to this earth can write such a bomb blast letter, that means she is madly angry and it is in her eyes to see you dead than been alive. Please Nigerians are tired of ur lies old man.
Your comment..its not right to judge someone through the reactions of others. first of all , hear but sides of the story, then critical analysis to fish out the truth. I see in Obasanjo as someone whom history has been unfair to. some people just echo other people’s opinions and views. his love for the country is intense. he had opportunity to make himself super rich but shown restrain. he outside the country when he was accused of coup plotting but he came back not minding the consequences. great character I must say. the only wealth traced to him is the Ota farm, I would say that is prudent enough.