Obasanjo Expresses Disappointment In Buhari As He Advises Him To Step Down [Read Full Statement]

Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed disappointment in President Muhammadu Buhari through a 13-page Scathing statement.

Obasanjo, in the press statement titled �The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement”, urged President Buhari to “honourably dismount from the Horse” and join the league of the country’s former leaders whose �experience, influence, wisdom, and outreach can be deployed on the sideline for the good of the country.”

Obasanjo made it known that he feels disappointed with Buhari’s performance. OBJ also wrote a similar letter in 2013 against President Goodluck Jonathan.

�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.

�He has a role to play on the sideline 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.”

�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.

OBJ thanked Buhari for the way he handled the Boko Haram crisis but pointed out that he failed to be efficient in other areas. He admitted knowing that Buhari was weak in handling the economy, he 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.

The former president 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.”

�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.”

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 the 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.