James Sowole in Abeokuta
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, replied to claims by former Ogun State governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, that he deceived leaders of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) during the political realignments preceding the 2003 General Election.
Obasanjo declared that he neither misled nor deceived anyone in processes that led to the Election but he only held wide consultations to consolidate on the success of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obasanjo’s strongly worded and lengthy letter dated July 23, 2026, was entitled: “Reply to Your Inaccurate Posture: ‘How Obasanjo Deceived Us in 2003’.
He described Osoba’s account, published in The Legal Observer on July 20, as “farfetched” and riddled with inaccuracies, omissions and misconceptions.
The former President took particular exception to Osoba’s allegation that he deceived Yoruba political leaders, insisting that his political engagements had always been guided by openness and national interest.
He said, “I take strong and serious objection to your calling me a deceiver because I deceived nobody. I always presented my case and all issues as I had them and as I understood them, no matter whose ox is gored.”
Obasanjo argued that several political developments preceding his emergence as President in 1999 were unknown to Osoba because they were handled by senior leaders of Afenifere and the AD.
He disclosed that after his release from prison, several groups from across the country urged him to contest for the presidency, including delegations led by Lawan Katsina, the late Chief S.M. Afolabi and Chief Martins Kuye.
According to him, those consultations informed his eventual decision to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after extensive consultations with political leaders across the South-West, North and South-East.
Recalling his engagements with the late Afenifere leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Obasanjo said despite being repeatedly told that Yoruba people would not vote for him, he continued to maintain cordial relations with the elder statesman.
“There was no time I called on Papa Adesanya that I was not well entertained. Yet Papa stood on no vote for me, and I stood on my respect and what was due to him,” he stated.
The former President defended his decision to invite the AD into what he described as a broad-based national government after winning the presidency, saying it was motivated by a desire to promote national unity rather than political weakness.
“Bringing PDP and AD to join me for a sort of national government was not out of weakness; rather, it was out of strength and for the unity and progress of the country.”
Obasanjo also rejected Osoba’s account of events surrounding the attempted impeachment of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, alleging instead that the impeachment plot originated from within his own administration.
He claimed that his then Vice-President had encouraged the move while simultaneously pursuing his own presidential ambition.
“The game continued to be played on with me treating it with contempt as I had committed no impeachable offence,” he wrote.
On the 2003 elections, Obasanjo disputed Osoba’s suggestion that the defeat of AD governors resulted from political manipulation by the Presidency.
Instead, he maintained that the electoral outcome reflected the political realities at the time.
“Your loss or defeat in 2003 was genuine in all the six states except the one where the figures were successfully and murderously changed,” he asserted.
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