A former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has debunked reports that he has endorsed an aspirant jostling for the office of the president in February 2015 election.
Mr. Obasanjo, who spoke through one of his allies, Oyewole Fasawe, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Monday, said he had neither endorsed nor condemned any of the aspirants running on the platform of any of the political parties.
The Senate President, David Mark, and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, had separately visited the former president last week triggering speculations that he discussed political matters with them.
Specifically, it was alleged that Mr. Obasanjo warned the APC leaders not field Mr. Abubakar, who was his (Obasanjo) deputy.
Mr. Abubakar had last month formally announced his intention to seek the presidential ticket of the opposition party.
Another leader of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, who served as petroleum minister in the military regime of Mr. Obasanjo in the 70s, will formally announce his plan to contest the presidential election on Wednesday, while the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, has since endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole candidate.
Mr. Fasawe said in a statement that Mr. Obasanjo sees the current gladiators in all the parties as his political children and associates; hence he would not endorse one over the other no matter the amount of pressure from any quarter.
“Baba has not endorsed anyone and has not condemned anyone. A statesman of his stature and pedigree can only pray and work towards peace and progress in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large. Those trying to exploit his friendliness to gain political advantage over other contenders are being unfair and doing so without Obasanjo’s approval,” he said.
He explained that the former president had been working tirelessly behind the scene to ensure a secure and rancour-free atmosphere for free and fair elections devoid of blood-letting and wanton destruction of lives and property.