The African Child Foundation, hosts of African Child Prize and the Nigerian Role Model Awards, has concluded plans to nominate Olusegun Obasanjo for the Nobel Peace Prize, as it commended the former president for his outstanding role in peace building in Nigeria and Africa.

The foundation, led by the Country Director, Mr. Donaldson Onosakponome, stated that before Obasanjo’s administration, Nigeria’s GDP growth had been slow since 1987, and only managed 3 per cent between 1999/2000. His words: “Under Obasanjo the growth rate doubled to 6 per cent until he left office. Nigeria’s foreign reserves rose from $2 billion in 1999 to $43 billion on leaving office in 2007.

He was able to secure debt pardons from the Paris and London clubs “During his tenure, he was able to check youth restiveness as well as militant activities in the Niger Delta, and not forgetting his role in enthronement of democracy in various African countries and more recently his peace initiative in Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau and South Africa. “We should be modest to say that Baba is one of the greatest leaders in Africa. We must all be proud to have him in this continent.”

http://www.metronaija.com/2017/03/obasanjo-to-be-nominated-for-nobel.html

cc: lalasticlala mynd44

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What about oga Jona? We will not take this.

For what exactly

Nobel peace award after the odi massacre........ Nonsense people

error error error

He deserves it.

Error 505!!!

Nobel Peace prize ko, No-bull peace price ni

Abeg let us hear word

He can't win it. There is nothing peaceful about vindictive unforgiving Obasanjo.

HOME POLITICS OBASANJO COMMITTED GENOCIDE IN ODI —BRIGGS
Obasanjo committed genocide in Odi —Briggs
Posted By: Yomi Odunugaon: November 25, 2012In: Politics19 Comments Print Email
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Obasanjo committed genocide in Odi —Briggs
Briggs
Human rights crusader and Niger Delta activist, Annkio Briggs, minces no words when she talks about underdevelopment of the oil-producing region. In this interview with our Abuja Bureau Chief, Yomi Odunuga and Correspondents, Bukola Amusan and Faith Yahaya, the 60-year-old said former President Olusegun Obasanjo should face criminal trial for Odi massacre. Excerpts:

Recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo expressed deep reservations about what he described as President Jonathan’s slow response to tackling the Boko Haram menace, noting that a more active measure, like the way he handled the Odi case, would rein in the Islamist sect. What is your take on Obasanjo’s comment?

First of all, we should not forget that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is referring to the total destruction of a whole community in Bayelsa State, which is Odi. He destroyed the whole community, not one house was left standing.

Those are not nineteen houses as he is claiming that they killed nineteen people that killed seven policemen in Odi. He alienated a whole community. We have the list on record of the names of the people that were killed in that community. Number two, Obasanjo, by his position on the matter of Boko Haram, is saying that he expects Jonathan to have moved in to destroy the community not only because Boko Haram is suspected to be there but that he should have also killed people in those communities. That is the implication of what Gen. Obasanjo has said.

When a man like Obasanjo, who is acknowledged or claimed to be a leader in this country and someone who is supposed to be respected in the international community, now says he expects a serving president in 2012 to go and kill people, to teach a lesson, to nip an issue in the bud; that is what he is saying.



This is a man that is supposed to be representing the United Nations in some African countries; he is saying that he expects Jonathan to have gone to the North and start killing people because Boko Haram people are killing people. Yes, Boko Haram are killing people and we are offended by what they are doing and they should stop it. But that does not mean Jonathan should be as barbaric and genocidal as what Obasanjo perpetrated in Odi.

You used a very strong word, genocide, to describe what happened in Odi. Are you considering taking further action on the matter?

Definitely, since he made that statement, that issue is being discussed. And why not? We may sue him. It was human beings that were killed in Odi, it is not fishes; those are blood and flesh, human beings that were killed for no reason. The people were old, men of 90 years, 80 years old and children were killed/ Pregnant women died, women were raped in that activity that took place in Odi.

So, is it because Ijaws did not go to the court of human right or any court at all in this world that Obasanjo now has the courage to justify that genocide? Thirteen years the Odi killings took place in 1999, the horrible incident happened to Ijaw people and 4000 of my kith and kin were killed for no just reason by the President of Nigeria at that time. Is it because we have allowed it to go that he feels he can reopen the wound and just wave it aside and refer to the destruction of a community, as nipping something in the bud. So, if he goes to war, what will he really do? Well, I take that question back because I know what he will do, because he was in the Third Marine Commando in Rivers State.

But, quite honestly, would you say President Jonathan has been able to handle the Boko Haram insurgence the way it should be handled?

We should ask ourselves, what do we want the president to do in the case of Boko Haram? Should he go in, as Obasanjo has suggested, killing people and destroying communities or should he single-handedly identify people who are Boko Haram? We have police officers in this country, we have Inspector General of Police, we have Commissioner of Police in those areas, we have officers in the State Security Services and we have the Army. The military is still occupying the Niger Delta.

Recently they just brought gun boats into the Niger Delta, they have gone to occupy some parts of the region. So, if that is what Nigeria is about, that the military will take over at the drop of a pin, then let us have it all over Nigeria and not just one area.



Why is Obasanjo raising this issue of Boko Haram and comparing it to the barbaric act that went on in Odi? Are we saying that Jonathan should send the military in and go and kill people in the North? Is that what we are saying in this country? I think what Obasanjo did then was wrong and what he is suggesting is wrong.

Let us not forget that Sharia was brought into this country by the then Governor of Zamfara State. At that time, a state religion was not allowed by the constitution of Nigeria but Obasanjo allowed it. And Boko Haram is actually part of it because it is part of the system he allowed. Did he nip Sharia in the bud then? Why didn’t he nip Sharia in the bud? He said Sharia would go away, so why should he not say we should fold our hands and watch Boko Haram go away because he said Sharia would go away? Has Sharia gone away? See where Nigeria is today.

But we must agree that Obasanjo was right in warning the Jonathan government against a revolution by the youth due to the rising rate of unemployment. Or do you also disagree with this?

How many jobs did Obasanjo provide in his eight years as a democratically-elected President? Can he give us a figure? He said he brought down inflation, what was it when he came? It was under him that the production of oil was brought down to an alarming rate because of his ways of handling things in the Niger Delta?

Let me say that the issue of security in Nigeria and the issue of the economy in Nigeria is based on oil and gas production. If you understand this theory, then you will know that it was during Obasanjo’s time that things began to deteriorate indefinitely in the second part of his eight years tenure. It was during his time that people like Asari Dokubo made the price of fuel to go so high and the production of oil in Nigeria started coming down.

So, if he is comparing his governance to the governance of Yar’adua/Goodluck and subsequently Jonathan/Sambo era, he is a key player. Obasanjo is a key player in the sense that he brought these people in and if he brought these people and he has issues with them, then as Nigerians, we should be asking, what went wrong, what are the issues that Obasanjo is having with them? Is itissue of loss of control on his part? What really is the problem?

What do you think really went wrong with the relationship between Jonathan and Obasanjo?

Well, Nigerians are grownups and there is what they call reading between the line and there is what I also call in this country, the PDP issue. The Peoples Democratic Party is the problem of Nigeria; it is the worst thing that has happened to this country. The reason I am saying this is that the PDP has governed this country since 1999 when Obasanjo came into power and when he left the Prison to become the President. I think that the expectations of Nigerians were dashed.

Your people, what do they want?

We want control of the resources. It is our resources and it is on our land. It is military decree that has taken our right and our resources. We have lost everything. Even now that we have a president from Niger Delta, if you take into consideration he has been there for two and half years and we still have nothing to show for it. He is the president of Nigeria and not of Niger Delta.

Let’s talk about specifics, what do you want?

At the very minimum, we want exactly what happened when there was cocoa and when there was groundnut, timber and rubber. And I think we cannot be said to be greedy if we say we should keep 50 percent and then have the same share as it was then.

Why can’t the governors in the region spend the huge allocation they get monthly to develop the zone?

That is another story and it comes under what is called corruption and it is right in Nigeria. It is not just in the Niger Delta, it is everywhere. The Niger Delta states are the largest funders of the PDP.

We fund the PDP. Which other state is funding PDP? We fund everything that the PDP does in this country.

The President said he was not interested in Sovereign National Conference because here is no provision for it and that the National Assembly should find a way to ensure equity. Do you think amending the constitution will help in the Niger Delta?

I am not interested in the amendment of the Constitution. We do not have a constitution in Nigeria. What we have is a military decree not a constitution because it was handed over to Obasanjo when he came into office. We want a brand new constitution.

If the President says that he is not interested in Sovereign National Conference, I think he is wrong. It is not his interest we are talking about here. We are talking about what Nigerians say they are interested in.

If Nigerians say they want a Sovereign National Conference or a national dialogue, it is the responsibility of the president to say this is what my people want. Let the National Assembly tell him that it is not in the constitution and then let Nigerians who want this dialogue find a way around the constitution.

But the fact remains that Nigerians want a dialogue and we must have a dialogue. I want to say here that not only do we want a dialogue, we want a brand new constitution that we will all sit down and be part of so that we can say that this is the constitution of the people of Nigeria.

If the president also says that it is not in the constitution, is Boko Haram killing people in the constitution? Is Sharia law in the constitution? Is corruption in the constitution? Do we have looting and stealing and the way they are doing things, are they in the constitution? So, if the president says certain things are not in the constitution, we should take him up on the things that are going on in Nigeria which are unconstitutional. I believe truly that that is what Nigerians should be doing. Nigerians should take the government on, on every single thing that the government does that is unconstitutional.

What do you think should be done or included in the constitution so that the people’s interest can be protected?

I was in a meeting with certain key people, I’m not at liberty to call their names, but I can say that what we discussed was about the Sovereign National Conference. There is a demand for it. There is even another school of thought that is saying, ‘let’s even forget sitting down to talk, lets go straight to a referendum.’ There are people that are even calling for a referendum right now and really we should have a discussion from which will emerge a referendum.

That’s what the people are saying today. The people are frustrated about everything today. Now, if that is what Nigerians are asking for, who is that person kicking against it? Power belongs to us, it doesn’t belong to anybody sitting in the National Assembly anywhere or one political party that calls itself any name. No. Nigeria belongs to you and I and we should begin to take this power and turn it around and push things in the direction that will work for us.

What inspires your activist tendencies?

Justice. I grew up in the creeks of Niger Delta. I grew up fetching water in a well that was dug by my grandfather and it was polluted but I did not die. But, today, my children cannot drink from that water. It is not development. It is lack of it. I went to primary school in my community but my children cannot even spend two nights there. I grew up without government supplying me electricity but my father had generator and till today there is no electricity in my community. It is of recent that they are bringing wires and it is like that in most communities across the country.

Is there any hope for Nigeria?

There is hope. Hope and faith mean believing in something and actually working towards it. In our case, we should hope and say this is what we want and act on it. If we remain fearful and over-cautious, this is how we will go on and the things that we can afford today will not be affordable by tomorrow. This is an animal farm. Nigeria is a farm and we can be great if the right people are use

MASSOB Replies Obasanjo, Lambasts Him Over Comment On Biafra
Author: Vincent Ehiabhi
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The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has replied former president Olusegun Obasanjo, over his comment on Biafra struggle at the weekend.

[article_adwert]

READ ALSO: Biafra: New Judge To Handle Nnamdi Kanu's Case

MASSOB Replies Obasanjo, Lambasts Him Over Comment On Biafra
MASSOB spokesman, Comrade Samuel Edeson, said Biafra is not dead and will never die.
The Punch reports that the group’s Director of Information, Comrade Samuel Edeson, in a statement issued in Enugu, on Monday, January 18, said “Biafra is not dead and will never die.”

Obasanjo, on January 15, while presenting a paper entitled: “Resurgent Biafra Agitation: Born in Error, Ignorance and Frustration,” at a public discussion on Biafra, organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja, said “Biafra is a dead issue”

He was reported to have condemned the renewed agitation for the resurrection of the Biafra secessionist agenda, describing it as a “hopeless and futile exercise.” The former leader advised the South-East people not to take the Biafra agitation seriously, saying: “No right-thinking person who has experienced the horror of war will ever agitate for more war.

“Nigeria cannot afford to go from Boko Haram insurgency to any other insurgency under any guise. And on no account should we wittingly or unwittingly allow this to happen again.”

Reacting to the former president stance on the Biafra issue, Comrade Edeson, stated that Obasanjo had tried to destroy the Biafra group in the past, during his administration as Nigeria’s president, but the struggle for the actualization of Biafra survived, despite persecution masterminded by him.

The spokesman further hinted that Obasanjo, in March 29, 2003 killed about 1000 MASSOB members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo state. He said several members were killed following Obasanjo’s order to clampdown on MASSOB, which was then under the leadership of Ralph Uwazuruike. He said Uwazuruike was arrested and incarcerated for a long period before he was later released.

Comrade Edeson said the pro-Biafra group would drag Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court for the killings.

“MASSOB wishes to reply Obasanjo that Biafra is not dead and will never die. Obasanjo should have known that after killing over 1000 MASSOB members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo State on March 29, 2003, which he masterminded through Achike Udenwa, then governor of Imo State. The killing of MASSOB members in Onitsha, Anambra State in 2006/2007, and detention of MASSOB members in various prisons in Nigeria has not stopped our agitation,” Edeson said.

He also alleged that Obasanjo attempted to bribe MASSOB leaders with "bag of money" stashed in a “Ghana-must-go bag” to forget the struggle for the resurrection of Biafra, during a meeting with them at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, but was turned down.

“In 2006 while Uwazuruike was in Keffi prison, Obasanjo invited us to Aso Rock where he promised us millions of naira and to send us out of the country. Ghana-must-go bag of money just for us to forget Uwazuruike to die in prison. But we rejected the offer,” he said.

The former president had expressed sadness that the Biafra agitation has also become an avenue for people looking for money by hook or by crook, especially from sympathisers abroad. He described the commercialization and exploitation of the Biafra agitation as “obscene and criminal.”

READ ALSO: Legal Representation Disrupts Kanu’s Arraignment

Edeson insisted that the former MASSOB leader, Uwazuruike, was expelled from the group for “commercialising” the struggle.

Edeson, who accused Obasanjo of genocide and corruption, said he does not understand “Biafra.”

“Yes it is true that Uwazuruike has commercialised the struggle and that is why we expelled him from MASSOB. Obasanjo is ignorant of Biafra,” he said.


Most Rev Dr Emmanuel Chukwuma, on Sunday, January 17 berated former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, for his outburst on the sensitive issue of Biafra.

MASSOB and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have threatened to resume protests in cities and towns across the South-East and South-South geo-political zones in response to the continued detention of it leader and director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Meanwhile, Enugu state government has issued stern warning to residents of the state against planned move by IPOB and MASSOB to protest on Monday, January 18, even as security operatives in the South-East have been put on a red alert around sensitive government facilities

Nobel Laureate Blames President Obasanjo for Violence in Nigeria
October 31, 2009 10:10 AM
James Butty
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Nigeria's Wole Soyinka, Africa's most acclaimed writer, says President Olusegun Obasanjo is illegally and unconstitutionally trying to lengthen his stay in power. He says President Obasanjo is using violence, bribery, coercion, and blackmail to twist the Nigerian constitution. Soyinka, the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for literature, spoke in Washington during a book signing ceremony for his newly released memoir: "You Must Set Forth at Dawn."

You Must Set Forth at Dawn covers Soyinka's life from his years as a young man to the present. Soyinka, who was imprisoned and exiled for his opposition to previous corrupt and dictatorial Nigerian governments, began his presentation by drawing a parallel between the past and the current militant agitation in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. He told a diverse audience that the issue in the Niger Delta goes beyond oil. Soyinka read a passage from the book about the 1995 trial and execution of Ken Saro Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.

"For most of us in the opposition, certainly for me, the state murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and his eight companions signaled the futility, indeed the death of dialogue," said Soyinka. "The trial of the Ogoni 9 right from the beginning was a proceeding that would be farcical but for its lethal implications."

Soyinka says he does not support the violence in the Niger Delta, but at the same time he's not surprised about what is going on in the oil-rich region.

"What is happening in the Delta is not strange. It was anticipated," he said. "Only those who take a very indifferent, alienated approach to real crisis, only they appear to be surprised. If you asked me I'm surprised at the new level of militancy in the Delta, the answer is clear: I am not surprised."

Soyinka says President Obasanjo has failed to understand that the militancy in the Niger Delta has escalated because of his desire to stay in power.

"One thing which became clear in my contact with those rebels is that they just do not trust this government. And I've said openly, publicly in Nigeria. And now that same region wants illegally, unconstitutionally to prolong its stay using and bribery, coercion, and blackmail to try and twist the constitution around," he continued. "What do you think those who've been waiting decades and decades for a government that will finally tackle their problems with a sense of justice, what do you think they feel towards that?"

On how to best quell the atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, Soyinka says United Nations peacekeeping forces would be more suitable than those from the African Union.

"Africa Union is simply not equipped, as shown clearly it's simply not equipped to deal with that situation. Otherwise, it should have stopped it a long time ago. And I say they got there too late because the African Union dragged its feet, kept saying this is a family affair," he noted. "We will solve it the African way. A crime against humanity is not an African affair. It's an international affair."

Soyinka says the United States should not take unilateral action in Darfur because he believes the U.S. has lost credibility in many parts of the world. He says the U.S., as a responsible and powerful member of the United Nations, should put its resources at the disposal of the United Nations.