Sunday, February 17, 2008

T.Y. Danjuma: Obasanjo Is Running Third Term Through Yar'Adua
By Akpo Esajere (Group Political Editor)

FORMER Defence Minister, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, was acrimonious during the week over the seeming influence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the administration of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

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He was particularly miffed that Obasanjo, whom he accused of allegedly encouraging corruption in his administration, has achieved his 'Third Term' ambition through President Yar'Adua.

He said: "Third Term hasn't failed; we are still in Third Term. Obasanjo is still in charge. Aremu of Ota is the de-facto ruler of this country, sitting in Ota and manipulating... the government through Umaru (Yar'Adua)."

Danjuma, a former Army Chief of Staff and an ally of Obasanjo, who said he would go on exile if Obasanjo were not made president in 1999, spoke exclusively to The Guardian in Lagos on Monday.

Accusing Obasanjo of corruption in his eight-year rule, he vowed : "We will expose the dirty details, which I have in my possession. We will make them public, to compel even Umaru to do something. Umaru Yar'Adua is a decent human being, but he is spineless."

He said that Obasanjo merits a second term in prison.

However, Danjuma also criticised President Yar'Adua, whose government, he said, was at a standstill, no thanks to the petitions against his election at the tribunal.

According to him: "Umaru started well by making all the right noises - rule of law, due process, electoral reform, bla, bla, bla and he appears to be on the right track. But if you are on the right track and you are moving but don't move fast, you will be over-run.

"Right now, we are standing still and the handlers of Yar'Adua tell us that it is because of the court case; that after the court case, he'll start performing. I doubt it. Even if Umaru has no case, for as long as Aremu of Ota is allowed to control the party and to manipulate things, so long will the standstill continue."

Danjuma argued that for Yar'Adua to perform as expected, he needed to be divorced from the former President.

He admitted that he did not know all the sides of Obasanjo from the Civil War period, through the Murtala Muhammed/Obasanjo regime and till the end of the Obasanjo government in 2007.

Danjuma, who addressed a wide range of issues in the four-hour interview, also clarified the controversies surrounding his role in the arrest and killing of Nigeria's first Head of State, Gen. JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi in 1966; the overthrow of Gen. Yakubu Gowon and his (Gowon) alleged involvement in the assassination of Murtala in 1976.

He exonerated Gowon from the Buka Dimka-led coup, in which Murtala was killed, stressing that because Gowon was never tried or convicted, as regards the coup plot, there was no need to grant him pardon, as recently reported in the dailies.

He likewise revealed why he and his colleagues in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) preferred Obasanjo to former Vice President Alex Ekwueme in the run-up to the 1999 presidential primaries of the party in Jos, Plateau State.

Danjuma said he was coming out with a memoir he labels a "grenade" that will explode the "funning lies" and misrepresentations on his role and those of others in Nigeria's history.