Reuters) – Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo criticised his estranged deputy on Friday over comments that political instability was raising the likelihood of a military coup in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria holds landmark general elections in April in a vote that should mark the first handover from one democratic leader to another, but a bitter power tussle between Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised fears about the transition.
Abubakar told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that fears Obasanjo would again try to extend his tenure were at the root of instability in Nigeria. Obasanjo failed in May in an attempt to rewrite the charter to enable a president to seek a third term in office.
“Whenever you have instability in the system and threats to national stability, that tends to induce the military to come in. We will not accept that. That time is over,” Abubakar said.
The president’s office said that there was no justification for Abubakar’s comments, which were published in the local media on Friday, and urged the military to remain dedicated to its constitutional roles.
“The dangerous suggestiveness of the statement reportedly made by the Vice President is most unbecoming of any true democrat as there can be absolutely no rationalisation for a military coup in Nigeria,” Obasanjo’s spokeswoman Oluremi Oyo said in a statement.
Obasanjo and Abubakar were elected in 1999 after nearly 30 continuous years of military rule, but the pair fell out soon after their re-election in 2003.
Obasanjo has accused Abubakar of graft in two reports presented to the Senate in September and the ruling party has suspended the vice president for three months, effectively shutting him out of the presidential primaries in December.
“Nigeria is very far from being politically unstable and ongoing efforts to combat corruption and entrench accountability at all levels of governance in the country can only be seen as “threats to national stability” by those who do not wish the country and its people well,” the statement said.
Abubakar is set to formally launch his campaign to run for president on Saturday, despite Obasanjo and the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s open opposition. The vice president has said he will run on the “platform of ideas and issues,” without indicating a political party.