*’Jonathan called no meeting before deploying soldiers for 2015 polls’
*’GEJ should’ve sought action against corrupt people who led us to national underdevelopment’
“What Falana did not tell however is whether Obasanjo then as sitting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces had responsibility to check any criminal effort by any individual or group of people to subvert the country’s sovereignty and compromise the security of Nigeria like it occurred with Odi where the youths killed soldiers and police officers and, after several appeal by Obasanjo’s government for the elders to surrender the criminal youths, which failed, they faced the consequences.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been asked to apologise to Nigerians over the deployment of the military to invade communities during his administration of between 1999 and 2007.
This was coming from human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), who criticized the former President for urging President Muhammadu Buhari to negotiate with the embattled leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, adding that under Obasanjo agitators were clamped down upon without him negotiating with any of their leaders.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in a recent interview with the Newsweek
Magazine advised Buhari to negotiate with Kanu to curb the secessionist agitations instead of the deployment of soldiers in the South-East.
He said, “I don’t see anything wrong in that (Buhari meeting with Kanu). I would not object to that; if anything, I would encourage it. I would want to meet Kanu myself and talk to people like him; people of his age and ask, ‘What are your worries?”
Falana reportedly recalled that the Obasanjo-led administration detained and tried leaders of secessionist movements.
He said, “In calling for a dialogue between President Buhari and Mr. Kanu, former President Obasanjo ought to have apologised publicly for the military invasions of Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki Biam in Benue State ordered by him.”
What Falana did not tell however is whether Obasanjo then as sitting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces had responsibility to check any criminal effort by any individual or group of people to subvert the country’s sovereignty and compromise the security of Nigeria like it occurred with Odi where the youths killed soldiers and police officers and, after several appeal by Obasanjo’s government for the elders to surrender the criminal youths, which failed, they faced the consequences.
A respondent said, however, that whether what Obasanjo did to Odi and Zaki Biam was wrong, as raised by Falana, or not was not a certificate for the former President to call on President Buhari to dialogue with “a terrorist like Nnamdi Kanu and the youths of the South East of Nigeria he leads in threatening Nigerian sovereignty and security with impunity, who neither have respect for their own regional elders, governments nor believe in the country, whose reason he and his followers breathe life.”
But Femi Falana argued that, “The basis of the call should have been explained since President Obasanjo charged Niger Delta militants, leaders of ethnic militias and separatist movements with treason, which led to their prolonged detention in prison custody.
“Convinced that former President Obasanjo has realised that the criminalisation of such agitation did not achieve its objective, his suggestion for a dialogue should be seriously considered by President Buhari and the South-East governors.”
Jonathan’s selectivity
The activist lawyer also faulted former President Goodluck Jonathan for calling for a meeting of the Council of State to resolve the crisis caused by the secessionist group .
He said, “For goodness sake, why was such a meeting not called before soldiers were deployed in the Niger Delta to deal with militants? Did President Jonathan call any meeting before deploying soldiers all over the country for the 2015 general elections in defiance of the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal?
“Instead of suggesting irrelevant meetings, the root causes of the increasing loss of faith in the corporate existence of Nigeria by unemployed youths and other poverty-stricken people should be urgently addressed by the ruling class.
“As a matter of urgency, the underdevelopment of the nation caused by the mindless corruption and criminal diversion of public funds by unpatriotic public officers on our hapless people should be addressed.”
Falana urged the National Assembly to enact an enabling law as required by Section 217 of the Constitution on deployment of members of the armed forces by the President.
