HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL: How Yar’adua Tried To Pull Away Obasanjo From His Administration – WikiLeaks

The recent period could be tagged a month of leaked documents, and WikiLeaks documents in particular.

The data information made public years ago becomes valuable and relevant again, ahead of the February elections.

The first sensation came the end of December as the allegations linked to the 1983-84 government of Muhammadu Buhari transpired.

Soon it emerged that Bola Tinubu, while being the Lagos State Governor, called for support of Olusegun Obasanjo rather than Buhari in the presidential elections. Tinubu expressed fears that Buhari’s “ethnocentrism would jeopardize Nigeria’s national unity”.

Finally, it was alleged last week that Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience Jonathan, has a more forceful personality than the President. Moreover, based on the document, the First Lady seriously influences the decisions of GEJ and his administration.

When it seemed that the internationally famous source had run out of secret data on Nigerian politicians, another piece was found.

In the confidential document dating back to the 2nd August, 2007, Northern tribal leader Bashani Aminu described “Yar’adua’s attempts to “disentangle” Obasanjo from the new administration”. Aminu specifically provided the steps towards achieving this goal.

See the extract below:
“DISENTANGLING OBASANJO
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3. (C) Aminu told Emboffs the tribal leaders have met several times with Yar’adua since he took office, discussing political and economic issues including the ministerial list and poverty reduction strategies. The rulers advised Yar’adua that he needs to pull away (or  disentangle” as Aminu put it) from Obasanjo and gain the legitimacy not provided by the elections through solid policy that benefits the people. In particular, they suggested he focus initially on job creation, electricity, development of the agricultural sector and Niger Delta security. 

4. (C) Aminu maintained Yar’adua is treading carefully as he moves to limit Obasanjo’s control. Nigerians will not see the “street fight” many are hoping for, Aminu told us, but
Yar’adua will be introducing radical changes over the next six months to curb Obasanjo’s influence. According to Aminu, Bode Augusto’s failure to obtain Senate confirmation was one of Yar’adua’s calculated moves. Augusto was slated to be Minister of Finance and Aminu maintained he was to lead Obasanjo’s loyalists in the cabinet. Aminu told Poloff Yar’adua worked quietly behind the scenes, convincing the Senate to reject his nomination so that Obasanjo could not blame Yar’adua for the rejection. Aminu maintains that Yar’adua has succeeded in placing a handful of key allies and seasoned politicians within the cabinet to assist in removing Obasanjo’s influence – he specifically mentioned Gambo Jimeta, former Inspector General of Police and National Security Advisor, as one of those allies. The few ministers that Obasanjo succeeded at placing in the cabinet will be out within a couple of months, according to Aminu. 

5. (C) Aminu linked the decision to overturn the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refinery sales to Yar’adua’s assertion of independence. He said to expect more such deals to be overturned. In particular, he maintained Yar’adua will overturn deals where Obasanjo was directly involved and one of the primary beneficiaries. He predicted Yar’adua will overturn the Transcorp purchase of the Abuja Nicon Hilton soon. These deals will be aimed at removing the ill-earned gains of Obasanjo and his close allies such as Aliko Dangote.
(NOTE: Dangote and Obasanjo’s Transcorp were both part of the consortium that purchased the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.) Aminu claimed Dangote gave Obasanjo a 35 million USD jet plane as a recent ‘gift.'”

You can find the whole document HERE.

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