The Real Author Of Iyabo Obasanjo's Letter To Father
Recent reports have shown that an
Aide to President Goodluck Jonathan is actually the brain behind the letter written by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo to her father - former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, Elombah.com can reveal. In the letter which
was made exclusively available to Vanguard Newspaper, Iyabo Obasanjo
described her father as a liar, manipulator, megalomaniac, narcissistic,
two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one
would contemplate with him as president. She also ruled out further
communication with her father till death.
According to our multiple sources, President Goodluck
Jonathan aides had earlier met in the Presidential Villa on how to attack the
former President who wrote the controversial letter titled ‘Its not too late’.
Some of the agreement reached we gathered was to hit Obasanjo below the bet
using his close family members.
It was gathered that Iyabo Obasanjo and
President Jonathan’s media aide, Reuben Abati had long been best of friends and
the latter had always confided in the Journalist her bitterness with her
father. According to our source, Iyabo had been planning to write an explosive
letter to her father, but had been stopped from doing so all these while by
Abati who we were told, told her not to try it so as to deepen the family
crisis and wash their dirty linens in the public, an advise which Iyabo had
since kept.
However following the acidic letter to his boss, Abati we
gathered had to put pen to paper all that Iyabo had told him in the course of
their conversation, and sent it across via mail to her for her perusal which
she did and consented to. Haven confirmed that it was true; our source stated
that she sent it to Vanguard editor, who was shocked at the content. Before
going to press with the publication, a call we gathered was put across to her,
where she agreed that the content of the letter be made public.
Abati was said to among the first to get the Vanguard
publication of the letter and hurriedly took it to President Goodluck Jonathan.
A source has told
elombah.com that while it is true that the thoughts reflected in the
letter are Iyabo’s, Jonathan's aide actually penned the letter.
"Go through the letter again and compare
with some of the journalist's past work and you will see that the way
he writes is reflected in the Iyabo letter", he claimed.
Again in 'Bitter-Sweet, My Life With
Obasanjo', Oluremi, the wife of Chief Obasanjo, emphasised the former
President’s hatred for his family when she said: “he told me to wait for
him. When he emerged, he was in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. He
slapped me twice and ran after me as I fled down the stairs…Throughout
his tenure as Head of State, Obasanjo also ensured that I was not given
any allowance as his wife. What he gave with one hand, he retrieved with
the other.
“It rained cats and dogs the day
Obasanjo handed over to Shagari at the Race Course, Onikan, Lagos,
October 1, 1979. He asked me to move to Abeokuta with him but I declined
because of his extra-marital indiscipline.
“When he was being drawn out of the
Army, I was in the same car with him. When we went for thanksgiving at
Owu Baptist Church, Abeokuta, I was also in the same car. At the church,
I sat with him on the front pew. During the reception I was in control
of events and sat his mistresses with other guests as their importance
demanded.
“I made Stella take one of the middle
seats with her friend, Julie Coker. After the ceremony, I told my
husband that I had risen to the top with him by the grace of God. Now, I
was giving him a free rein to misbehave with his mistresses as I would
not stay with him at Abeokuta. He begged me earnestly not to leave him
alone. He said he had not finished his house at Victoria Island, Lagos,
wondering where I would stay. I still kept my flat on Lawrence Road,
Ikoyi.
“Obasanjo did not forgive me that I did
not live with him in Abeokuta. He stopped taking care of the children,
probably thinking I had a lot of money. He only sent N400 a month. Iyabo
and Busola were at Queen’s College, Lagos; Segun was at King’s College.
I was now torn between raising my children and running the farm.
Sometime in 1981, Gbenga and Enitan were due to return to school at
Corona after the long break.
“When the school fees were not
forthcoming from their father, I went to the late Simbiat Abiola for
assistance. She prayed that God would help. I later sold off my gold
bangles to Alhaja Abdulraq, a jeweller, to raise the fees.
“My topsy-turvy relationship with
Obasanjo continued. He would drive past Oduduwa Crescent without
checking on his children, who were progressing in education. Iyabo,
Busola and Segun were making excellent grades at school. I was
struggling to make ends meet.”
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All
Progressives Congress, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, has described Senator Iyabo
Obasanjo’s purported letter to her father as a distraction.
Fashakin, who was the National Publicity
Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, told Saturday
PUNCH, on Thursday that Iyabo’s letter did not detract from the issues
raised by ex-President Obasanjo in his letter to President Jonathan.
Fashakin said whatever Senator Obasanjo
had against her father was a family affair which had no bearing on the
growth and development of Nigeria.
He equally wondered whether Nigerians
were being railroaded into taking the younger Obasanjo’s letter as
President Jonathan’s response to the former president’s letter.
Fashakin said, “Should we now take the letter from Iyabo Obasanjo to her father as the response from the President?
“Because, the coincidence is too much,
telling us that Obasanjo is not a good father, what has that got to do
with our progress as a nation?
“That is at best the business of the
Obasanjo family. What Iyabo has written and what Obasanjo has written
are two different things.
“(Olusegun) Obasanjo opened a can of
worms, is it true that the President has trained or is training 1,000
snipers in North Korea? Because he said it was the same place Abacha
trained his own.
“There is no need trying to dance around
these issues, let us know the truth. Let us know whether when we go for
campaigns now those snipers will begin their work.
“Those are the things we are interested
in, not the Presidency using Iyabo Obasanjo to distract us. Does her
letter detract from what Obasanjo said in his letter?”
He said at best Iyabo’s letter only told Nigerians that Obasanjo was a bad father and a bad family man.
He accused the Jonathan administration
of trying to use “this distraction” to shift public attention from the
issues raised in Obasanjo’s letter.
Fashakin also demanded that government
should explain to Nigerians the real reasons behind its decision to free
Major Hamza Al-Mustapha from jail.
He expressed fears that political
campaigns might become dangerous gatherings to attend if indeed there
were trained snipers on the prowl.
The party chieftain maintained that what
Nigerians expect from the President is for him to address all the
issues raised by ex-president Obasanjo in his open letter.
Category: Nigeria News
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