Lamido Reveals How He Prevented War Between Yar’adua And Obasanjo

Former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, has revealed how he successfully persuaded the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua not to escalate tensions with his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, to the point of a political war.

The disclosure was made in Lamido’s newly released autobiography, ‘Being True to Myself’. In a section titled “My Relationship with Yar’adua,” Lamido recounts how, despite the mounting tensions between the two former leaders, he intervened to prevent further conflict.

In his memoir, Lamido reflects on the fragile political atmosphere of the time, noting that the rift between Yar’adua and Obasanjo had deepened to a dangerous level.

Tensions between the two had been building, and the country’s political climate was strained. Lamido took it upon himself to meet with Yar’adua and personally appealed to him, urging him not to let the situation escalate into a full-blown confrontation with Obasanjo.

“I was ushered into his office and offered the normal courtesies. He looked at me and said, ‘Sule, what is agitating you?’ Almost going down on my knees, consumed by emotions, I said, ‘Sir, In the name of God, please, I beg you, do not fight Obasanjo. You are coming from a very strong, powerful, political and moral background. It is neither in our religion nor culture to show ingratitude to those who have been with you in your hour of need and who stood against all forces to ensure you attained this very office you are in.’ Noting my deep emotions, he said, ‘Sule, calm down and sit down.’ He picked up his intercom and summoned his ADC, Lt Col Mustapha.

“When the ADC entered, the president asked him point blank, ‘ADC, what were my instructions to you with respect to Obasanjo?’ The ADC replied, ‘Sir, you asked me to accede to any demand he might make on any issue, either within or outside Nigeria, including his travels, without recourse to you.’ President Yar’adua then turned to me and said, ‘Sule, are you comforted now?’ I said, ‘Yes, Sir,’ and bade him farewell. I left Abuja and returned to Dutse, my state capital. My relationship with Yar’adua, from then on, was neither cosy nor uneasy, but strictly formal,” he recalled.

Lamido Revealed How Probe Of ₦16 Million Power Project Further Strained Their Relationship

He said, “The first was the debate raging in the National Assembly (NASS) on the $16m National Independent Power Project (NIPP). If the debate in the House of Representatives was led by a member of the opposition, that could be understood, but it was led by a very prominent PDP member and a close ally of President Yar’adua from Katsina State. The impression being given to Nigerians in that debate was that Obasanjo stole the $16m and the projects were abandoned. Of course, later events proved otherwise. I went to President Yar’adua and drew his attention to the debate in the House of Representatives on the power issue. His tart response to me was, ‘It is an issue being discussed by an independent arm of government.

“The second instance affected me more personally when his Chief Security Officer, Tilde, called me while I was in my office in Dutse. On answering the call, CSO Tilde asked me where I was. I answered him casually that I was in my ‘village capital’, Dutse. To my shock and utter disbelief, he said, ‘I thought you were in Ota with your president.”

He disclosed that the former president, Obasanjo, had relocated to Ota in Ogun State after leaving office.

Lamido wrote that he was momentarily numbed by the CSO’s words, but when he regained composure, he unleashed “all of the insults I could muster” on him and threatened to report him to Yar’adua.

“Perhaps to calm me down, he said, ‘Sorry, Sir, I just called to inform you that we have received a petition against you addressed to the President, and I am in a position to suppress it.’ Not ready to mellow down, I retorted, ‘Who do you think you can blackmail? Go to hell!’ With hindsight, I believe it must have been Mohammed Ali Ringim’s petition.

“The following day I took off to Abuja and went straight to the Villa. For those who are familiar with the President’s office, the office of the CSO is right by the side of the security personnel manning the entrance. I stormed into his office and showed him the furious side of me. I told him flatly that I did not know that the presidency had been so diminished and reduced to a centre of gossip and mischief-making. I told Tilde, to the hearing of everybody who was there, that Umaru, his boss, in that office upstairs, would not have been the president if not because of Obasanjo. I think this was the incident President Obasanjo made reference to in his My Watch Volume III, pages 49 to 50,” Lamido wrote.