Posted by By Segun Adeleye, Reporter, Abeokuta on
President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday declared that he would not hand power to "criminals" at the expiration of his eight-year tenure.
President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday declared that he would not hand power to "criminals" at the expiration of his eight-year tenure.
He made this declaration just as he reiterated his resolve to leave office in May.
Obasanjo described the "criminals" he would not hand over to as those who would not continue with the reform agenda he had set, and those whom he described as "looters of the treasury".
The President, who also spoke on the presidential candidate of the the PDP, Katsina State governor, Umar Musa Yar'Adua, debunked insinuations that the latter belonged to the al-Qaeda group.
Stressing that there was no iota of truth in the news, Obasanjo described Yar'Adua as a "liberal Muslim."
He warned the electorate to beware of detractors.
Obasanjo, who met with PDP members from his local government area, Abeokuta North, at the Valley View Auditorium, promised that he would not interfere in the running of government at whatever level after the expiration of his tenure.
He urged Nigerians to support PDP to take Nigeria to a developed economic level before 2020.
The president used the occasion to endorse the candidature of Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, for a second tenure.
According to him, "a known devil is better than an unknown angel."
Obasanjo, who described Daniel as the best man for the job, added that the latter had proved his worth.
Dispelling insinuations that he had reservation about Daniel's candidature, the president stated that there was no one without shortcomings.
He urged members of the PDP to work for its success at all levels.
Governor Daniel, at the occasion, showered encomiums on the President for championing the cause of economic emancipation of the country through his reforms agenda and restructuring.
Although the governor called the attention of the president to recent incessant power outage in Ogun, he commended the gesture of the president in approving fund for the Oyan dam water project which, when completed, would solve perennial water shortage problems in the state.
The president however urged Nigerians to exercise a little more patience for the fruit of their endurance to flourish.
Also, he promised that power outage would soon be a thing of the past. He urged the Nigerian people to come out en-masse during the elections to vote for PDP.
He explained that after 1979 those who took over from him ruined the economy to impoverish the nation. He gave assurance that such would not repeat itself in 2007.