Text of a Press Conference by former Minister of Works & Elder statesman, Chief Barnabbas Gemade, on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s call for cancellation of presidential election results
Gentlemen of the press, I warmly welcome you to this important press conference. This is a sad moment in the annals of our country’s democracy. The people who moved against the wish of our people and annulled a free and fair election in the past are at work again.
Gentlemen of the press, I invited you here because of an assault on our democracy and rule of law. All leaders of this country and lovers of democracy must rise against this imprudent intervention. Indeed, we must all rise up in defence of democracy.
After 24 years of unbroken democracy, this is not the kind of thing we want to encounter. We cannot afford to allow the gains we have recorded to be frittered away by a few misguided people who neither worked for democracy nor believed in its principles. Unfortunately, this set of people reaped from democracy; they reaped from our sweat, from our Labour for democracy. They reaped bountifully from where they did not sow.
The call on Monday by former president Olusegun Obasanjo for the cancellation of a validly conducted election is a call for insurrection. It’s an attempt to incite our people to take arms against the state. It’s an assault on our collective psyche. We must not allow Obasanjo to have his way. We must condemn him and his satanic and unpatriotic call. I strongly condemn his statement and I call on all well-meaning Nigerians and our security agencies to call him to order. Security agents must pay special attention to this man and his antics.
For the life of me, I find it difficult to understand why Obasanjo thinks he approximates the entire country. Why does he think he can decide for the country, or for the Nigerian people who have voted for a presidential candidate of their choice. Does Obasanjo understand what a transparent and credible election mean? Is he even qualified to talk about credibility in an election? Someone who corrupted our electoral system and through his protege, Prof Maurice Iwu, organised perhaps the most fraudulent election ever witnessed in this country. This was after he failed in his bid to get an unconstitutional third term in office.
This former president wants to set standards for other leaders to follow. The truth is he has no standard or quality in his ways. What you find in his ways are indecency, dishonesty, deception, double face, treachery and wickedness. No one can give what he does not have. Obasanjo has been a thorn in the flesh of many presidents who came after him ostensibly for their refusal to hero worship him.
Why does Obasanjo want to abort the baby that has already been born? Why does he want to visit violence on the country? Why does he want to plunge the country into anarchy? Because the fact is a winner has emerged from Saturday February 25 free and fair election.
I urge President Buhari and INEC Chairman Prof. Yakubu to ignore him.
The INEC chairman should announce the remaining results of the election and bring the process to a close. With this wicked and evil call, Obasanjo has added an inch to his opprobrium. He must be put where he belongs: in the dustbin of history.
