Obasanjo Blasts Jonathan Again, Says He Betrayed The Armed Forces

Former president Obasanjo who always criticized President Goodluck Jonathan administration has said that Jonathan betrayed the armed forces by allowing corruption to undermine their operations. He made his opinion known during an interview with the Financial Times at the launch of his controversial autobiography titled, ‘My Watch’, in Nairobi, Kenya.

He said, “It is a question of leadership – political and military. I think you need to ask Jonathan how he let the army go to this extent.

 Many things went wrong: recruitment went wrong; training went wrong; morale went down; motivation was not there; corruption was deeply ingrained; and welfare was bad.”

Obasanjo added that he was saddened by the rate at which the nation’s resources were dwindling, adding that when he left office, Nigeria had $45bn in its reserve but the resources had been depleted by more than half despite the increase in oil prices.

Reacting to the postponement of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission for security reasons and a better distribution of Permanent Voter Cards, Obasanjo said he hoped the Federal Government was being truthful.

He urged Jonathan to put the interest of the nation ahead of his own ambition.

He said warned that manipulating the electoral process could lead to a coup d’etat, adding that the May 29 handover date remained sacrosanct.

“I sincerely hope that the President is not going for broke and saying ‘look dammit, it’s either I have it or nobody has it’. I hope that we will not have a coup. I hope we can avoid it,” he said.