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Umar Truly Rejected Obasanjo's Appointment - Bugaje
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja

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House of Representatives Committee Chairman on External Affairs, Dr. Usman Bugaje at the weekend in Abuja said President Olusegun Obasanjo offered retired Colonel Abubakar Umar a plum job, but he turned it down.

Bugaje who responded to questions from National Assembly correspondents said as a former special Adviser to Vice President Atiku Abubakar he was involved in lobbying Umar to take the appointment.

"Let me confirm that it is true that at some stage when I was in the Villa, Colonel Abubakar Umar was offered an appointment, and I was one of those who were asked actually to speak to him and clearly, he rejected the appointment, and he pointed to others who might be interested but he himself said he was not going to take any appointment. So, that I can very clearly confirm. I can also go ahead to say as far as I know, Col. Umar is not the type who will lobby for any particular position", he said.

Asked if he could recall the position that was offered the retired colonel, which has become a subject of controversy, Bugaje said he could not remember but that given time to look through some documents, he could still come up with the position that was offered Umar.

On who exactly made the offer and Umar's reasons for turning it down, he said it was the decision of the Executive who after deciding to offer the position to Umar, called him (Bugaje) to contact the retired officer.

"The offer was made by the executive in consultation you know. I think the President; the vice President and the National Security Adviser were all involved in this. I cannot remember who initiated it, but I remember after the decision was taken that the job should be offered to him, I was called in and I was a party to talking to him on the subject. Being the political Adviser of the Vice President at that particular time, most of the top political appointments I would be involved at some stage after decisions had been taken", Bugaje explained.

He added that Umar said he preferred to be out of government and to assist in whatever way he could from where he was operating from. He didn't want to be in government," the lawmaker said.

The lawmaker dismissed as "silly", the insinuation by Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode that the letter by Umar was aimed at creating a rift between the President and the Vice President. "Umar is not that close to the Vice President as to worry about their relationship. If anything, I think Umar is closer to General Obasanjo, he is a military man like him, retired military man and he is more likely to have known him and to have worked with him and therefore share whatever sentiments or whatever," he said.

Bugaje added that Umar did not appear to him as a petty person nor one that would go out of his way to cause division between people. He asked Fani-Kayode to look elsewhere to explain things.

He said, people were beginning to realise where the problem of the country was coming from as those who pretend that all was well were making things worse. He advised people in government to look inwards into themselves to see the genesis of the problem.

On what he thought of the criticism by Umar that President Obasanjo has failed the people, he replied, "Well I don't think it is a matter of thinking. I think it is there for everybody to see. The failures are very vivid. Even the failure to carry other arms of government along is a very big failure. The failure to meet the expectations of Nigerians is a failure. The failure to implement budgets, which is not contestable, it is there for everybody to see".

He pointed out that he would not want to speak on the view of Umar that the President was being used by the devil but added, "Well, I wouldn't want to go into that, but I did write recently that somebody who speaks directly to God is somebody who you will find very difficult to advise".

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