Flashback: How Olusegun Obasanjo rigged 2007 Presidential election

PM NEWS

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo rigged April 2007 Presidential election for his party, the People’s Democratic Party.

While addressing elders and stakeholders of the PDP in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, on 10 February 2007, Obasanjo sounded tough and categorical.

Like a warlord, he declared that the 2007 general elections would be a “do-or-die affair” for both himself and the ruling PDP.

“We want those who are going to succeed us to continue where we stopped,” he professed.

The President added that the electorate should be careful with their choice of leadership. According to him: “I read that somebody said I was campaigning. I will campaign because this election is a do-or-die affair for PDP. Why should we have criminals as leaders?” he queried.

His remark may have been the outpouring of a sincere heart, but it revealed the intentions of Obasanjo – PDP losing will never be accepted by him.

With the tough stand of Obasanjo, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, became a biased umpire in doing the bid of its master.

It was a landslide victory for the PDP.

One wonders why the same Obasanjo, on Monday, questioned the credibility of INEC when he presided over one of the worst elections in the history of the nation. That was the 2007 election which brought the emergence of the late Umaru Yar’Adua. Political analysts have said Obasanjo’s statement was simply “pot calling kettle black.”

A flashback to what happened in that election will reveal who the real ‘Abacha’ is.

Prior to the 2007 general elections, electoral violence had been recorded in several parts of the federation. In Lagos, Engr, Funsho Williams, a PDP governorship aspirant was brutally murdered in his home at Dolphin Estate. The election proper was nothing to write home about as monumental violence was recorded.

Iruonagbe, Imonopi, and Ahmadu (2013) said the violence during the 2007 general election was highly anticipated because it marked the first transfer of power from one civilian to another. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was stepping down as president due to a two-term limit.