Obasanjo blasts Buhari as incompetent, clannish failure; says NO to reelection in 2019
Special ro USAfrica (Houston) USAfricaonline.com @USAfricaLive @Chido247
Nigeria’s former President, retired army General Olusegun Obasanjo, today January 23, 2018 unleashed a critical, pointed condemnation of what he assessed as the almost 3 years of woeful, poor performance of President Muhammadu Buhari, also a retired army General.
In Obasanjo’s words “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…. With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood’,”
Obasanjo expressed his profound disappointment with the long evidences of Buhari’s clannishness, stating “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.”
Obasanjo who voted for Buhari against his party PDP flag bearer, then President Goodluck Jonathan, called on Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019, ini his 13-page statement titled, “The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement.”
“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 cautioned Buhari about his poor health and the misleading, “self-serving so-called advisers who would claim that they love him more than God loves him and that without him, there would be no Nigeria….”
More details and reactions here on uSAfricaonline.com and on twitter @USAfricaLive @Chido247
