Why We Picked Obasanjo As Presidential Candidate In 1999 - Ex Gov. Lamido Opens Up

While speaking at the 15th Daily Trust Dialogue in Abuja, former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, on Thursday, said that the search of a true national leader who could placate the South West for the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections believed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola led to the emergence of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as President in 1999.

 

According to The Nation, the influential politicial also told President Muhammadu Buhari to be honourable to accept defeat in the 2019 presidential election just like former President Goodluck Jonathan did in 2015 as a way of proving his integrity as a leader.

 

But the National Chairman of the National Rescue Movement, Senator Saidu Dansadau, said the former Jigawa governor was being economical with the truth, adding that Obasanjo was never a candidate of northern politicians, but picked by a section of the military who wanted one of them to continue in office.

 

Going down memory lane, Lamido who was one of the three key speakers at the Dialogue said: “Under June 12, my party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won an election that was very transparent and we were all part of that process. We all worked for a very wonderful transition and had elections which were credible, open, and transparent but were annulled.

 

“Somehow, the west which produced the President was terribly aggrieved that their son, late Moshood Abiola, even though they never liked him, they only saw the fulfillment of their becoming President, which is something none of them has done and so.

 

“The annulment was seen as a ploy to deny a Yoruba man the opportunity of becoming President. Then Abacha came and we all know what happened. Those people who are now laying claim to a new found democracy were active participants in Abacha’s government."