LAST week, I criticised the many PDP members who objected to Yar’Adua being “foisted” on them as a presidential candidate but maintained a cowardly silence when Obasanjo (aka OBJ) instructed them to vote for Yar’Adua at the party convention in 2006…and are now bitterly blaming OBJ for problems that wouldn’t have arisen if they had stood up to him.

I HAVE never fully understood why so many Nigerian politicians insist on bitterly informing anyone who will listen to their tedious tales of woe that they were forced to comply when Obasanjo (aka OBJ), our former President, “foisted” Yar’Adua on the PDP and the nation.

Some say he was immediately taken to Katsina. Some say he was taken to the Presidential Villa. Then there are those who insist that the Acting President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was not notified in advance…and those who say that Jonathan was not only notified in advance but was the one who made all the necessary protocol and security arrangements.

IN the past couple of columns, I have dwelled on the President’s continued absence and the courage that was so magnificently displayed by Prof. Dora Akunyili, the Minister of Information. I have also said that even though I regard the President as a basically decent man, I despise those of his loyalists who aggressively resisted moves to make Dr Goodluck Jonathan Acting President and think that a medical team should be sent to Saudi Arabia to find out whether Yar’Adua is likely to recover enough to return to his desk at some point in the near future.

Daddy also expressed the view that it would be OK if the then President (Obasanjo) replaced him with a non-Rivers person who was a decent human being.