Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he is confident that President Goodluck Jonathan will do well in the Peoples Democratic Party presidential primaries and the presidential elections in 2011.



Obasanjo spoke with a United States- based Nigerian news agency, Empowered Newswire, after attending a United Nations session on the promotion of the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS where Nigeria’s Access Bank donated $1m to support the UN agency in its work to stem the spread of HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis, in New York.



“I believe he (Jonathan) will do his best and once he does his best and our party does its best, the best will be enough,” he said when asked to assess the President’s chances in the forthcoming poll.



On who he would vote for during the PDP presidential primaries, Obasanjo replied, “I might as well tell you who I will be voting for in the election, I thought that was meant to be a secret.”



Waiving off media speculations that he was reconsidering his support for Jonathan, Obasanjo, almost laughing, said “The media is (sic) a fool; the medium that says that is either a fool or mischievous.”



When reminded that he had led the South- West openly to declare support for Jonathan, the former President claimed that the zone was only one of the six geo-political zones in the country where the PDP had a strong presence.



“We start party membership at the ward level, to the state, to the zonal and the national levels, and you must be an active party member. So, I was there and whatever is being done at any of the level,…whatever my party decides, I cannot say to hell with the party,” Obasanjo said.



He added that as the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, “whatever my zone does I cannot disagree. But when we then have to meet as BOT, which I chair, I direct the affairs as necessary.”



Obasanjo also spoke on the reported gang up by some politicians, especially those from the Northern part of the country, against the candidacy of Jonathan.



“Ganging up or not, factions and alliances are normal part of politics and there is nothing wrong with that. What matters is that at the end of the day, whatever the results (are) we all accept it,” the former President said.



Asked whether he was optimistic that the 2011 elections would be hitch-free, he said, “Of course yes, oh yes.”



According to him, “We are in Nigeria, the country of excitement and we believe in things happening and they do happen; but we are also…, shall I say, there is never a dull moment. If I come to this world again, I will tell God to bring me back to Nigeria.”



Conceding that there were issues for Nigeria to address before the poll, he advised against using foreign standards to assess the country’s situation.



He said, “We have many things that we need to correct, many things. But one things we have is (that we) criticize ourselves, we look for ways to improve, what we can do better and how we can do them better. We are never satisfied; we are never complacent, which is very good.”



But Obasanjo said that the way other countries looked at Nigerians was because of “our self-criticism.”



He advised that Nigerians “must stop judging and condemning ourselves using the standards of others. We must decide our own standards and use our own standards to judge ourselves.”



On how the PDP would perform in the elections next year, Obasanjo said, “My party will do its best and once my party does its best, the best will be good enough for us.”



Explaining his absence at last weekend’s declaration of Jonathan in Abuja, the former President said he had travelled to Jamaica to attend the funeral of his friend’s father, Karl Masters.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201009232312478

Obasanjo was the only person that genuinely supported Jonathan,but the Ijaw wanted their son to distance himself from him because it is their turn.After all they produce oil.I am sure the old man of Otta now know that the civilian politicians are all bums judging by his experience with Yar Adua and now Jonathan.Baba knows now that Nigeria is not safe in the hands of these small men parading as our leaders.It has taken him so long to know what the others that fought for unity knew.

I believe in the future, when judging how he single-handedly destroyed the choke-hold the Northerners have on Nigeria, history will judge Mr.Obasanjo superbly!

He advised that Nigerians “must stop judging and condemning ourselves using the standards of others. We must decide our own standards and use our own standards to judge ourselves.”

Please this man should go to sleep
In other words this old man is asking us to shut up no matter how the government treats you. We must accept their corrupt and stealling standard and should always judge them based on this negative standard they establsihed in Nigeria

Am forced to ask OBJ if democracy was originated by his father. You are practicing democracy which was never your original system of government, stealling us dry in the name of the same democracy, but preaching the adoption of your own standard instead of the standard which the fathers of democray already layed. We spent billions conducting an election in the name of democracy, at the end you handpicked a candidate for us and you want us to judge you based on our standard.

If we are forming our own standard then we should go back to the days were we dont have spend millions to chose a king. Where we dont have some criminals stealling the country dry in the name making laws, where you OBJ has to be judged by taking you to 'Ogwu' to swear if you never stole from Nigeria and let see if you would still be alive by now.

bk.babe97y:

I believe in the future, when judging how he single-handedly destroyed the choke-hold the Northerners have on Nigeria, history will judge Mr.Obasanjo superbly!

So suddenly all is now well because OBJ is in support of GEJ. Na wooo! When we all know he hand-picked Yar'Adua and GEJ, campaigned for them throughout the country and ensured they where inaugurated.

But at other times, if other people use there position to twist events to their favour - we cry foul. Its like in Nigeria when we demand change, we invariably just want positions changed (get us and our interest closer) and not necessarily for thing to function as they should?

What Obasanjo is saying is right for we all know that Jonathan is the only right person for the seat right now.

HERE IS THE PDP ZONING FORMULAR AS DRAWN IN 1999 AS I KNOW IT:

ASSUMING 2 TERMS EACH;

PRESIDENT V. P. SEN. PRES. H. OF REP
1999 SW NE SE NW
2007 NW SS NE SW
2015 SE NC SS NE
2023 NE SW NC SE
2031 SS NW SW NC
2039 NC SE NW SS

@wale, that is one of the point OBJ supporting GEJ and he never sit on the fence

show me your god father and i will show you who you are.

@ALMUSTAQIM  What sort of country is this, how will a small group of people calling themselves party thieves chiefs decide for more than 140million nigerians who become their president and which zone he must come from, and we say we practice democracy. This is highly ridiculous, nigerians must be allowed to choose who govern them at any point in time regardless of any tribal or religious affiliations and that is when we can have a true nigeria; not the present nigeria that belongs to a small set of people calling themselves politicians.

This politics is for the interest of the south entirely.

This opportunity should be embraced to balance the imbalance in our national polity.

Our military Southern youths have been fighting for liberation,

each time they are slaughtered (all of southern origin)

Southern politicians should work together as our military boys do work together each time they target this common goal of liberating the south.

This is where my fear is the M.A.D OBJ CONNECTION.

Meanwhile the GEJ picture does not do him any justice as he looks like the yoruba commedian called BABA SUWE[img][/img]

G.B.T:

Meanwhile the GEJ picture does not do him any justice as he looks like the yoruba commedian called BABA SUWE[img][/img]

I had to take another look at the picture . Maybe the man is better as a comedian GEJ/Baba Suwe and Company

A VOTE FOR JONATHAN IS A VOTE FOR OBJ, FELLOW NIGERIANS LET US NOT ALLOW OBJ TO COMPLETE HIS MISSION OF SELLING THE REFINERIES TO HIMSELF AND HIS FELLOW YORUBA BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

ALMUSTAQIM:

HERE IS THE PDP ZONING FORMULAR AS DRAWN IN 1999 AS I KNOW IT:

ASSUMING 2 TERMS EACH;

                          PRESIDENT     V. P.    SEN. PRES.    H. OF REP
1999                       SW              NE               SE          NW
2007                       NW              SS               NE          SW
2015                       SE               NC               SS          NE
2023                       NE               SW              NC          SE
2031                       SS               NW              SW         NC
2039                       NC               SE               NW         SS

ALMUSTAQIM  You have  lost  touch  with  reality. Who  drew  out this zoning  in PDP? The senate president  has  never  come from  North East before as  you  claimed  in this your senseless Table  above ( 2007 NW    SS   NE       SW ) The current Senate president Sen David Mark is  from Benue  state which is in North Central NC  and  not NE .

Now Let  me  take  you  back  to  memory  lane.

A critical glimpse in to the history of the party since the inception of the fourth republic in 1999 shows to me that there was no time the Presidency was zoned to a particular zone or section of the country as against the claims being made by the party and some politicians today. In 1999 a "doctrine of necessity" was followed by all the three political parties then, to allow the Presidency to go to the South due to the annulment of the June 12 1993 (which has been adjudged as the freest and fairest election in our nation) which was  won by  MKO Abiola, a Yoruba man from the South west. In that same 1999 election, the late Abukakar Rimi a Northerner, bought the form but was later rejected and his money was returned to him because of the resolve of the party to allow only Southerners to vie  for the seat. In 2003 and 2007, the primary was contested by people from both the Southern and Northern regions.

In 2003, an erstwhile chairman of the party, Banarbas Gemade and Late Rimi both from the North and Obasanjo and Ekwueme both from the South bought the Presidential forms and contested in the primary. In which the then incumbent President, Obasanjo was a southerner was fortunate to win. In 2007, a total number of 30 aspirants participated in the primary, out of  which 14 (Yar’adua, Gusau, Marwa, Jerry Gana and 10 others) were from the North and 16 (Odili, Udenwa, Sam Egwu, Donald Duke,   Akhibge, Ebitu Ukiwe and 10 others) were from the Southern region. Late Umara Yaradua, A Northerner fortunately won the ticket.

If Gemade and Odili won in 2003 and 2007 respectively, would you still be saying there is a zoning arrangement?

ALMUSTAQIM:

HERE IS THE PDP ZONING FORMULAR AS DRAWN IN 1999 AS I KNOW IT:

ASSUMING 2 TERMS EACH;

PRESIDENT V. P. SEN. PRES. H. OF REP
1999 SW NE SE NW
2007 NW SS NE SW
2015 SE NC SS NE
2023 NE SW NC SE
2031 SS NW SW NC
2039 NC SE NW SS

hahaha the wrongest list ive ever seen you must be drunk

funny nigerians! obj now becomes a saint to southners simply because he is in support of jonathan(who nobody has bothered telling us his achivements as president,acting president,vice president,governor,deputy governor other than the fact he is from the south and by supporting him the north will be caged)

if truly we want the country moving forward we should be talking ribadu,dele momudu e.t.c and not a bunch of under achievers. personally if it must be pdp then i go for ibb!

I think this plot is perhaps one of the very few things OBJ got right. Yeah as a nation we do sincerely need surgery but for now can only tolerate change through chemotherapy. It will be slow and very painful but perhaps we may just get there eventually. I prefer to look at the game rather than the players. In Goodluck we will break away from two very important shackles - one, the old leadership order and two the northern hegemony that ferments power rotation.
It is a good start and you can't blame OBJ for that. If GEJ wins (and I hope he does) we do not expect him to hand power back to this mafia after his term expires and perhaps in another eight years it won't be so strange for yet another southerner to contest. It is up to GEJ to build trust and divulge power for this to happen.

Those advocating power to the young turks should bid their time. It will happen. Just don't make the mistake of name dropping. Ribadu, Fashola, etc are good but they may not be the best out there and they certainly are not institutions. In GEJ election we have a platform for a change of ideology. Radical is good but the soil isn't fertile enough yet.

vicknesh:

A VOTE FOR JONATHAN IS A VOTE FOR OBJ, FELLOW NIGERIANS LET US NOT ALLOW OBJ TO COMPLETE HIS MISSION OF SELLING THE REFINERIES TO HIMSELF AND HIS FELLOW YORUBA BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

the yoruba s have oil too
and who told you anyone prefers the almajiris to yorubas

yes this is true

funny nigerians! obj now becomes a saint to southners simply because he is in support of jonathan(who nobody has bothered telling us his achivements as president,acting president,vice president,governor,deputy governor other than the fact he is from the south and by supporting him the north will be caged)

Dont make that mistake that we view him as such for the iediot is stil B.L.O.O.D.Y M.Zap.E.R.
fact is the available best is still JONATHAN follwed by Ribadu.
The rest don't cut it at all they are just there for
--Relevance
--economical reasons
--Just to make the numbers.

I get your fear with Jonathan and the Ota connection and the fact that Jonathan is not bother trying to disassociate himself with that but am just hopping that he gets in and like Tinubu did with the likes of Pa Adesanya and the other Nadeco peeps whip them in to the shape he wants them in!

That is my prayer

obj is right, no one can topple jonathan in d pdp primaries. ibb is just a visionless politician tryin to remain relevant. he shld av formed his own party. even gusau has more grounds in d north than ibb. bukola saraki has a strategy of boostin his popularity and attractin top pdp members to persuade him to step down in exchange for some goodies. As for Atiku, he is very confused. How can u betray ACN members and return to PDP, a party u once openly abused constantly on difrnt platforms.

to hell with zoning. obj is a genious, a master tactician and strategic politician. he has always wanted to please the south-south; which was why d vice presidency was alloted to d region under yaradua. jonathan has d upper hand. major northern topshots in pdp supports him, most governors and even the privates sectors.

However ribadu will do well. he has his track record, tribe and Age goin for him. We hope for a free and fair election. irrespective of tribe, region, religion and whatever, let d best candidate win. This time, every one will come out to vote. the super rich, upper class, middle and lower class.
As dbanj said, bobo too good ooo, o tun ni luck oo, jona, jona jona, GOD BLESS NIGERIA

others rule and retire but obasanjo has refused to retire. when i see ppl like, clinton, bush, mandela and other influential past presidents, i begin to look back to our country.
if you have tried your best, it is normal u give room for fresh ideas.
since 1999 till now, thing have refused to improve yet this same old man refused to go as well.
must a nigerian ruler die ruling if in his failures.
it is shameful and boring listening to this weak and old brain who is old enough to give birth to mordern presidents.

orangemen:

others rule and retire but obasanjo has refused to retire. when i see ppl like, clinton, bush, mandela and other influential past presidents, i begin to look back to our country.
if you have tried your best, it is normal u give room for fresh ideas.
since 1999 till now, thing have refused to improve yet this same old man refused to go as well.
must a nigerian ruler die ruling if in his failures.
it is shameful and boring listening to this weak and old brain who is old enough to give birth to mordern presidents.

may GOD PUNISH YOU TIMES 1000 what Nigerian president have ruled and retired IBB  Buhari ? Fool its quite obvious that Obj being there giving advice to Jonathan is for the good of everyone.

If Obj chose to keep his mouth closed when the north kicked against Jonathan as acting president, Jonathan and the rest of the foolish south would be looking like mumus.

The truth is southerners are tooooo foolish!

and you be real ode- Bush campaigned with John Mcain and Clinton campaigned with Hilary before giving his support t Barack Obama. AND BUSH IS VERY RELEVANT ANYTIME THEY TALK ABOUT THE ECONOMY OR WAR BUSHS NAME COMES UP. so you prolly dont know wtf youre talkin about.

Obasanjo should carry on southerners we are too foolish when it comes to politics.

[color=#006600][/color]

G.B.T:

funny nigerians! obj now becomes a saint to southners simply because he is in support of jonathan(who nobody has bothered telling us his achivements as president,acting president,vice president,governor,deputy governor other than the fact he is from the south and by supporting him the north will be caged)

Thunder fire you that said this. What has your father achieved as a man? And who is planning to cage the north? You must be a retarded good for nothing illitrate and bloody gay, mumu like wen neva see paste brush teeth carry ur skinking mouth foul dis thread. God will punish you if you dont repent. I be omo delta i nor send weda na ghannian go win or not, all we are after is true democracy not these tribalistic stuffs. Open your eyes blind goat. Orue!

@dj klever

son of a thousand harlots! i dont care if you are from the niger delta or niger skunks! how has your insults answered the question? educated illiterate! when will you morons get tired of the line -i am from the niger delta? dirty filthy scum of the earth! what has your disgrace of a name father contributed to the development of your ward outside reminding us that you have oil (which is there not of your making)? no wonder ticks like you are regarded as the lasiest bunch in nigeria