Any military takeover won’t be recognised, says ‎Obasanjo

‘Any military takeover of government would not be recognised by the international community.’
That was the position of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday.
“A lot of rumours are flying around. I think we have gone away from the rumour of Interim Government because that is not in our constitution. I hope we will soon go away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the military is not meant to run affairs of a nation in terms of running government. And the international community will not condone it, particularly African Union.
“We have said and it is part and parcel of the constituting act of the African Union. Any government that is brought about, not on the basis of the constitution, will not be accepted, will not be tolerated and will not be a member of the AU until that government is dismantled,” he said while receiving a delegation of South-West women of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by the wife of the party’s presidential candidate, Hajia Aisha Buhari, at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
To him, the international community “is much interested in Nigeria’s general elections and we must strive to live up to expectation by conducting credible polls”.
“We are the largest country in Africa, we should be a model, setting examples. We shouldn’t be drawing Africa backward. I hope we will not. I hope at the end of this exercise, we would be where we should be, leading Africa and showing examples for the rest of Africa and indeed, the rest of the world.
“We have the goodwill of many people. I watched last night (Monday), President (Barack) Obama talking about our constitution. I watched our brother from Ghana, the current chairman of ECOWAS talked about our constitution; they are all interested. They all wish us well. Should we wish ourselves anything less?”
The former president also decried hate campaigns among political parties in the country.
He said: “May be I should say one or two things about campaign‎. I do hope that whatever happens at the elections, the one coming this week and the one coming couple of weeks after that, that we would have learnt the right lessons from what has taken place this time around.
“Unfortunately, issues that should have been the main item of our campaign, they did not. We have serious issues of security, we have serious issues of our economy, we have issues of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment. We have serious issues of infrastructure. These are issues amongst others that I believe campaign of those who are interested in the present and the future of this country should be directed at.
“How are we going to get them? What are we going to do? Not trivial issues of certificate, no certificate; not trivial issues of when somebody is talking about someone is a Nigerian and not a Nigerian.
“I said it. This is what they had in Cote d’Ivoire and led them into a very serious problem; not issue of religion, not issue of tribe, not issue of section but issues of unity of this country and the hate campaign that we have embarked upon now.
“I hope this will be the last time in the history of this country that we will have this type of campaign of hatred or division. I think the emphasis should be on what unites us, not what divides us.”
Hajia Buhari said Obasanjo “is a true nationalist and statesman”.
“Baba exercises his prowess as a father, as a former Head of State of Nigeria twice. Very few Nigerians have the opportunity to rule the country twice, we are here today to show our appreciation the way you handle things as a statesman and also a nationalist. We thank you so much for acting beyond party in getting things right; thank you for that. May you live long to continue solving out problems.”