Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja on
National Chairman of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Gen. Jeremiah Useni, has dismissed claims by President Umar Yar Adua that he could never be teleguided by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, saying the former president's hand writing is reflective in all the actions being taken by his successor.
The party leader asked Yar'Adua not to fool Nigerians and that he could only try in vain to dissociate the former president from his administration, more so when it was visible for all to see that Obasanjo has his grips on the administration.
In a statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday, Gen. Useni said his party leadership watched in disbelief on national television how Alhaji Yar'Adua's spokesperson, Segun Adeniyi, attempted to defend his boss against public perception that he (Yar'adua) was being teleguided by the immediate past president.
The DPP chairman said shortly after Adeniyi's defence of his boss as an independent person, an announcement came on air that former president Obasanjo's senior special assistant on media, Mrs Remi Oyo, had been appointed the new managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), pointing out that that appointment did not portray Yar'Adua as an independent person.
Gen Useni, in his statement, maintained that 'there is a saying that the more you see, the less you understand. The questions begging for answers are; how did Senator David Mark and Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh emerge as PDP's Senate President and Speaker respectively?
'Under which circumstance did Obasanjo emerge as chairman of Board of Trustees of the PDP and head of the Legislative Mandate Committee saddled with the responsibility of guiding and monitoring PDP legislators? What section of the constitution was Obasanjo exercising when he summoned the South-West governors and other serving government officials to his Ota Farms?
'Why is Umaru Musa Yar'Adua finding it difficult to completely reverse most of the anti-peoples' policies/actions put in place by the last Obasanjo's administration? How do you address a man, who is in charge of the ruling party, the legislature and responsible for appointment into key positions of a government?"
The DPP leader restated that the April elections were flawed as reported by both local and international observers, and as admitted by Umaru Musa Yar'adua himself, adding therefore that the PDP government lacked the legitimacy to take its own decisions without interference from those who imposed them on the people.
The party boss argued that the only way for Yar'Adua to convince Nigerians that he is a man of his own is to give way for a fresh and more credible election to take place.