Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday, in a blistering and
excoriating 13-page statement, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari
not to seek re-election in 2019.
Mr. Obasanjo, in a special press statement entitled, “The Way Out: A
Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement” said Mr Buhari has
performed far below expectation and should honourably “dismount from the
horse” to join the league of the country’s former leaders whose
“experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the side
line for the good of the country.”
Mr Obasanjo, a two-term president on the platform of People
Democratic Party (PDP), said he felt disappointed by Mr Buhari, whom he
supported during the 2015 election over then incumbent and candidate of
his former party, Goodluck Jonathan.
Mr Obasanjo had written a condemnatory open letter in December 2013
titled “Before it is Too Late” where he highlighted the numerous
failings of the Jonathan administration.
Mr Obasanjo argued that his decision to go against Mr Jonathan at the
time was the right one, as events in the last three years have since
proved, was for the good of the nation and nothing personal.
“Even the horse rider then, with whom I maintain very cordial, happy
and social relationship today has come to realise his mistakes and
regretted it publicly and I admire his courage and forthrightness in
this regard,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
“He has a role to play on the side line for the good of Nigeria,
Africa and humanity and I will see him as a partner in playing such a
role nationally and internationally, but not as a horse rider in Nigeria
again.”
Likening the state of the nation to lice-invested clothes, he said
the country’s fingernails is stained with blood as it tries to kill the
lice by pressing them in-between two fingernails. According to him, in
other to make sure that our fingernails remains blood-free we must do
what it takes rid our clothes of lice.
“The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity,
poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty,
condonation of misdeed – if not outright encouragement of it, lack of
progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor
management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality – are
very much with us today,” he wrote.
“With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying
poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood,” he added.
While thanking Mr Buhari for the effort of his administration in
rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency and his fight against corruption,
Mr Obasanjo said Mr Buhari has ultimately failed in other areas where
he had thought he would be efficient.
The octogenarian, who bagged a PhD over the weekend, admitted he knew
Mr Buhari was weak in handling the economy. He said he however went
ahead and voted for him because at the time “it was a matter of ‘any
option but Jonathan’” and because he thought Mr Buhari would appoint
qualified Nigerians to help out in that area.
He slammed Mr Buhari for turning a blind eye to corruption within his
government saying it amounted to condonation and cover-up saying
whoever is “going to justice must be with clean hands.”
He also berated Mr Buhari for allowing the clashes between herdsmen
and farmers to go “sour” and messy saying the endorsement of the
President by some governors to seek re-election barely 24 hours after 73
people who were killed by herdsmen in Benue State were given mass
burial was “a sad symptom of insensitivity and callousness.”
But Mr Obasanjo reserved his harshest words for what he described as
Mr Buhari’s clannishness, lack of understanding of the dynamics of
politics, and his tendencies to pass the buck of his government’s
inadequacies to the immediate past administration.
“But there are three other areas where President Buhari has come out
more glaringly than most of us thought we knew about him.
One is
nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring
discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court.
This has
grave consequences on performance of his government to the detriment of
the nation. It would appear that national interest was being sacrificed
on the altar of nepotic interest. What does one make of a case like
that of Maina: collusion, condonation, ineptitude, incompetence,
dereliction of responsibility or kinship and friendship on the part of
those who should have taken visible and deterrent disciplinary action?
How many similar cases are buried, ignored or covered up and not yet in
the glare of the media and the public?
“The second is his poor understanding of the dynamics of internal
politics.
This has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation
more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced. It
also has effect on general national security.
“The third is passing the buck. For instance, blaming the Governor
of the Central Bank for devaluation of the naira by 70% or so and
blaming past governments for it, is to say the least, not accepting
one’s own responsibility.
Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on
politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even
more depressing today.
If things were good, President Buhari would not
need to come in. He was voted to fix things that were bad and not
engage in the blame game.”
Buhari and the APC do not have the answer
Mr Obasanjo thus argued that neither Mr Buhari nor his party, the All
Progressives Congress, hold the solution to the country’s problems.
He suggested that Mr Buhari was not healthy enough to withstand the
rigour associated with running a country like Nigeria neither does his
party capable of providing the answer needed to sail the country through
its difficulties.
Mr Obasanjo said Buhari should step down at the end of his first term
with honour and dignity and attend to his health and should not listen
to his “self-serving so-called adviserswho would claim that they love
him more than God loves him and that without him, there would be no
Nigeria say.”
“President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from the
horse.
He needs to have time to reflect, refurbish physically and recoup
and after appropriate rest, once again, join the stock of Nigerian
leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed
on the side line for the good of the country.
His place in history is
already assured. Without impaired health and strain of age, running the
affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7.
“I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this
point in time and at this age. I continue to wish him robust health to
enjoy his retirement from active public service.
President Buhari does
not necessarily need to heed my advice. But whether or not he heeds it,
Nigeria needs to move on and move forward,” he said.
“I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political
parties – APC and PDP – were wobbling.
I must reiterate that nothing
has happened to convince me otherwise. If anything, I am reinforced in
my conviction.
The recent show of PDP must give grave and great concern
to lovers of Nigeria.
“To claim, as has been credited to the chief kingmaker of PDP, that
for procuring the Supreme Court judgement for his faction of the Party,
he must dictate the tune all the way and this is indeed fraught with
danger.
“If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria at
this crucial and critical time, what then do we do?
Remember Farooq
Kperogi, an Associate Professor at the Kennesaw State University,
Georgia, United States, calls it “a cruel Hobson’s choice; it’s like a
choice between six and half a dozen, between evil and evil. Any
selection or deflection would be a distinction without a difference.
”
We cannot just sit down lamenting and wringing our hands desperately and
hopelessly.
Coalition for Nigerians
Having ruled out the PDP and the ruling APC of possessing the panacea
to the malaise that ails the country, Mr Obasanjo therefore called for a
movement he termed Coalition of Nigeria, which he offered to be a part
of, to wrest power from the present ruling class and lead the country
into the path of rebirth.
“We can collectively save ourselves from the position we find
ourselves.
It will not come through self-pity, fruitless complaint or
protest but through constructive and positive engagement and collective
action for the good of our nation and ourselves and our children and
their children.
We need moral re-armament and engaging togetherness of
people of like-mind and goodwill to come solidly together to lift
Nigeria up.
This is no time for trading blames or embarking on futile
argument and neither should we accept untenable excuses for
non-performance.
“Let us accept that the present administration has done what it can
do to the limit of its ability, aptitude and understanding.
Let the
administration and its political party platform agree with the rest of
us that what they have done and what they are capable of doing is not
good enough for us.
They have given as best as they have and as best as
they can give.
Nigeria deserves and urgently needs better than what
they have given or what we know they are capable of giving.
To ask them
to give more will be unrealistic and will only sentence Nigeria to a
prison term of four years if not destroy it beyond the possibility of an
early recovery and substantial growth.
“The development and modernization of our country and society must be
anchored and sustained on dynamic Nigerian culture, enduring values and
an enchanting Nigerian dream.
We must have abiding faith in our
country and its role and place within the comity of nations. Today,
Nigeria needs all hands on deck.
All hands of men and women of goodwill
must be on deck. We need all hands to move our country forward.
“We need a Coalition for Nigeria, CN. Such a Movement at this
juncture needs not be a political party but one to which all
well-meaning Nigerians can belong.
That Movement must be a coalition
for democracy, good governance, social and economic well-being and
progress.
Coalition to salvage and redeem our country.
You can count
me with such a Movement.
Last time, we asked, prayed and worked for
change and God granted our request.
This time, we must ask, pray and
work for change with unity, security and progress. And God will again
grant us.
Of course, nothing should stop such a Movement from
satisfying conditions for fielding candidates for elections.
But if at
any stage the Movement wishes to metamorphose into candidate-sponsoring
Movement for elections, I will bow out of the Movement because I will
continue to maintain my non-partisan position.
Coalition for Nigeria
must have its headquarters in Abuja.
“This Coalition for Nigeria will be a Movement that will drive
Nigeria up and forward.
It must have a pride of place for all
Nigerians, particularly for our youth and our women.
It is a coalition
of hope for all Nigerians for speedy, quality and equal development,
security, unity, prosperity and progress.
It is a coalition to banish
poverty, insecurity and despair. Our country must not be oblivious to
concomitant danger around, outside and ahead.
Coalition for Nigeria
must be a Movement to break new ground in building a united country, a
socially-cohesive and moderately prosperous society with equity,
equality of opportunity, justice and a dynamic and progressive economy
that is self-reliant and takes active part in global division of labour
and international decision-making.
“The Movement must work out the path of development and the
trajectory of development in speed, quality and equality in the short-
medium- and long-term for Nigeria on the basis of sustainability,
stability, predictability, credibility, security, cooperation and
prosperity with diminishing inequality.
What is called for is love,
commitment and interest in our country, not in self, friends and kinship
alone but particularly love, compassion and interest in the poor,
underprivileged and downtrodden.
It is our human duty and
responsibility so to do. Failure to do this will amount to a sin
against God and a crime against humanity.”
Today, Jan 24th,2018,Former Vice President Of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar visited Gov.Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba,
has vowed not to support President Muhammadu Buhari in his bid to be
reelected in 2019.