The former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo has strongly condemned the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan of using his political power to his advantage and not doing enough to fight corruption.

Both President Jonathan and Mr. Obasanjo are members of the ruling PDP party and this attack is considered the harshest since Mr. Obasanjo stepped down as leader of the country in 2007.

In the letter which was made public, Mr. Obasanjo warned that Nigeria could slide back to military rule because of Mr. Jonathan’s failure to unify and fight corruption in the country.

“I want nothing from you personally except that you should run the affairs of Nigeria not only to make Nigeria good, but to make Nigeria great for which I have always pleaded with you and I will always do so. And it is yet to be done for most Nigerians to see”.

“I could sense a semblance between the situation that we are gradually getting into and the situation we fell into as a nation during the Abacha era,” Mr. Obasanjo wrote.

Abacha was a military dictator who ruled Nigeria with decree from 1993 to 1998, until his death. The country after his death went back to multi-party democracy.

Mr. Obasanjo concluded that It would be “morally flawed” for President Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015. Nigeria is due to hold general elections in 2015.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been hit by serious in-fighting ahead of the election with a powerful faction of state governors have already broken away to join the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

Local reporters say the PDP now has fewer governors supporting it than the opposition and this is not good news for the government.

But the office of the President has also hit back at the ex-leader Olusegun Obasanjo, describing his accusation as “provocative” which is aimed at destabilizing President Jonathan’s government.

The presidency said Mr. Obasanjo attack was “reckless, baseless, unjustifiable and indecorous”.

The PDP has won every national election since the end of military rule in 1999.

Mr. Jonathan moved from the vice-presidency to the presidency in 2010 after his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died in office. He won elections the following year.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

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