More facts emerge on how Obasanjo destroyed Nigeria’s democracy

Like it is said that he that lives in glass must not throw stones at others, nemesis may have been catching up with former President Olusegun Obasanjo lately as more facts about his draconian attitude to democratic administration during his citivilian rule (1999-2007) have continued to emerge.

Obasanjo, who said he would prefer a Muhammadu Buhari government to send him back to prison than for a Goodluck Jonathan to continue to be President in the build up to 2015 presidential election, suddenly turned against the President few months ago on reason he gave as nepotism and failure of Buhari to rule Nigeria well.

It will recalled that in 2015, former Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba, had warned President Muhammadu Buhari against allowing intimacy between him and Obasanjo saying that the former President was not one to be so trusted with intimacy.

Na’Abba cited many examples including how he corruptly funded lawmakers during his time to earn his famous unconstitutional third term in office and yet turned round to call lawmakers corrupt.

Not too long into the administration of Buhari, Obasanjo proved Ghali Na’Abba right and the rest is now history.

In a media interview he reportedly had with Daily Independent on Tuesday, Prince Tony Momoh, a former Minister of Information said the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, using Nuhu Ribadu, founding Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), destroyed Nigeria’s democracy by barring certain politicians from participating in the 2007 general elections without recourse to the rule of law.

In an interview, Momoh also accused Ribadu of breaching the EFCC Act which stipulates that he should charge alleged corrupt persons to court after completing his investigations.

However, Momoh said Ribadu upon completion of his investigations handed over the case files to Obasanjo, who in turn set up committees to determine who should be pardoned or who is to be investigated.

He said based on the recommendations of the committee, many eligible politicians were barred from contesting election in the country owing to Obasanjo’s personal judgment without any court pronouncing them guilty.

He further stated Oby Ezekwesili, co- founder of the BBOG campaign widely regarded as Madam Due Process was also a member of the committees set up by Obasanjo that barred politicians from contesting.

“In my view, he destroyed Nuhu Ribadu because I wrote that Ribadu had been led astray. Everybody like Ribadu because of what he did in EFCC. In his investigations, the EFCC Act said he should go to court and prosecute but Ribadu collected all investigations and handed them over to Obasanjo on his instructions”.

“Obasanjo on his part set up committees to address who was guilty or not. From there, it moved to another committee that decided who could be pardoned or not”.

“Based on that, they disqualified people from contesting election which was outside due process. Unfortunately, my sister Oby Ezekwesili was a member of one of the committees that disqualified politicians from contesting election. That was in the area of destroying our democracy. They just messed up our Due Process” he said.