Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has described the former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo as “a bad and decayed element, lacking democratic credential here in Nigeria
In a statement today, Thursday, opposing the United Nations’ (UN) choice of the former Nigerian leader as a mediator in Liberia, Fayose described the appointment as misplaced.
“Someone like Obasanjo, who was at the center of the manipulation of George Weah’s electoral victory 12 years ago should not be the one to mediate now that he (Weah) has secured the victory that he was denied then.”
The statement, which was issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, quoted Fayose as calling on the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, to withdraw the nomination of Obasanjo as a mediator in Liberia.
“Obasanjo, who was a major actor in the Liberia 2005 election crisis, lacks moral rights to be a mediator in the affairs of that country now that it had the first peaceful transfer of power from one democratically-elected leader to another in more than 70 years.
“He will rather compound the problems in Liberia because I don’t see him being trusted by the President-Elect, whom he (Obasanjo) openly worked against in 2005 to impose the outgoing President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for reasons best known to him.
“The UN should be mindful of the fact that someone like Obasanjo that may be seen as celebrity and champion of democracy internationally is actually a bad and decayed element, lacking democratic credential here in Nigeria, considering his failed third term agenda.”
The governor asked African leaders, especially the democrats among them, to always avoid leaders like Obasanjo with questionable antecedents, saying “he is the actual confusion in the continent.”[myad]
