August 19, 2011 – Mark Appeals To Obansanjo & IBB To Desist From Inflammatory Remarks
To those who’re unaware what’s going on with IBB & Obasanjo. The pairs were recently involved in what we termed “Battle of The Generals”
Obasanjo calls IBB a fool at 40, while IBB responds back with “Nigerians Know The Fool”. Read more below
The Senate President David Mark has appealed to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Military President Ibrahim Babangida to sheath their swords in the interest of the nation.
He urged the elder statesmen to restrain from making further inflammatory remarks “capable of destroying all the efforts they have sunk into building our great nation.” “As statesmen, you cannot afford to resolve your differences on the pages of newspapers,” he said. “You have contributed immensely to the growth and development of this nation. Your responsibility is to advise those coming after you on the challenges confronting our nation today and in the future.”
Mark also cautioned the followers of these former leaders not to expand the horizon of the disagreement, adding that “we should continue to pray for peaceful co-existence among all”.
Obasanjo, on Thursday, described Babangida as “a fool at 70” while replying to the latter’s earlier criticism of his eight year rule as one that lacked focus and was visionless. Babangida, in a pre-birthday press briefing in his Hill Top Villa in Minna, Niger State, had said that his “senior” in the Nigerian Army (Obasanjo) wasted a whopping $16 billion to build power plants without anything to show for it.
Reacting, Obasanjo said: “If Babangida had decided, on becoming a septuagenarian, that he will be a fool, I think one should probably do what the Bible says in Proverbs Chapter 26, Verse 4. It says ‘don’t answer a fool because you may also become like him.’ When you go to the same Proverbs Chapter 26, Verse 5, it says ‘answer a fool so that he will not think he’s a wise man.’ So, I am now torn between which of the two verses I should follow in this respect. Some of the things he said unfortunately were not well thought out.”
Returning the salvo, Babangida described Obasanjo’s history as “an open sore that is irredeemably contrived in several incongruities and contradictions”. Daily Times
