PRESIDENTIAL LIES

We are getting tired of hearing the lies of President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Because, it is no longer news that the President is a liar. In fact, I don’t know if he is as bad as the President of America whose own lie I prefer to call the famous American White Lie or American slip of tongue. Because, I don’t have the right to call the President of America a liar. He is not my President and George W. Bush has not lied to Nigerians. But, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has been telling what I want to call “Public Relation Lies” for his image-laundering project.Imagine him claiming that the last National Political Reform Conference was “a mission from God”?

Then he went on to lie that the conference was held in an atmosphere of harmony, love and brotherhood? When the major economic region of Nigeria, the South- South left the conference midway and never returned? President Olusegun Obasanjo hosted conference delegates at a lavish banquet in the Presidential Villa in Abuja, and commended them for a job well done.

This old African ruler is political comic!

Now, can President Olusegun Obasanjo and his ruling party give us the account of the total budget of the last National Political Reform Conference?If he cannot do so, then he has no right to denounce the draconian government of Papa Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and he has no right to dismiss the coup in Mauritania. Because, he is a bad example to the rest of the political rulers in Africa. After all, he also came to power first in 1976 through a military coup. And returned to power again through dubious Presidential Elections. Because, the so called democratic elections of 1999 and 2003 in Nigeria were all rigged and stage-managed by the Nigerian political mafia and the corrupt oligarchy.

Political assassinations and extra judicial murders have become common since President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999.

Below is a foreign report on the last National Political Reform Conference in Nigeria for the knowledge of those who were not aware of it.

Swiss info J
uly 25, 2005 1:35 AM

Nigeria's Obasanjo hails reform talks despite boycott

By Estelle Shirbon.ABUJA (Reuters)

Nigeria's political reform conference handed recommendations to President Olusegun Obasanjo in a blaze of publicity on Sunday but delegates from the oil-producing Niger Delta boycotted the event over a wealth-sharing row.Obasanjo launched the talks in February with a mandate to propose changes to Nigeria's constitution, written under military rule. Activists, politicians, clerics and elder statesmen from across Africa's most populous country took part.Delegates from the delta walked out of the talks in June after failing to secure their main objective: a recommendation that the region's share of oil revenue be raised dramatically.Oil money is Nigeria's main income and the acrimony over how it should be shared laid bare deep divisions between regional, ethnic and religious interest groups in the nation of 140 million people.Obasanjo hosted conference delegates on Sunday night at a lavish banquet in the presidential villa during which he took possession of six volumes of recommendations.

These range from combating electoral fraud to boosting agriculture.The Niger Delta delegates turned down their invitation to the glittering gala, which was broadcast live on national television and radio."I commend all delegates for the atmosphere of harmony, love and brotherhood that prevailed at the conference," said Obasanjo, making no direct reference to the delta's walk-out.

"The cynics among us have been proved wrong ... except for a few diehards and professional opportunists," he said.

"NO HIDDEN AGENDA"Obasanjo called the conference a "mission from God" and spoke of it "shaping the destiny of the nation".Describing what he sees as one of his government's biggest achievements, an $18 billion (10.4 billion pounds) debt relief package secured from rich creditors, he said funds made available by the deal would be used to implement some of the conference's recommendations.Obasanjo said he had "no hidden agenda" in convening the talks -- a reference to persistent speculation that they are being used to sound out opinion on changing the constitution to allow him to seek a third term.

The issue of whether to change the current four-year presidential term, renewable once, was the other sticking point at the reform talks, although the row over oil wealth was much fiercer.Ledum Mitee, head of a group representing one of the delta's ethnic groups, told Reuters the region's delegates had boycotted the banquet because "we did not want to legitimize a process that did not reflect the fundamental wishes of our people".

The demand for a greater share of oil money is a powerful one in the delta, where most people are poor and feel cheated of the wealth being extracted from their lands.Billions of petrodollars leave the region every year in the form of profits for foreign oil firms or revenue for the central government, which has a record of corruption and mismanagement.Resentment over the perceived injustice has fuelled conflict between delta communities and oil companies as well as sabotage, kidnappings of oil workers and inter-communal violence.