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 Wat 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 feels 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
Mr 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 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 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.
Coalition of 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.”
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