By Joseph Edegbo
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday wrote Buhari that Nigeria is derailing under his leadership and should therefore not re-contest come 2019. Here under are the quotes from the letter:
“For Africa to move forward, Nigeria must be one of the anchor countries, if not the leading anchor country. It means that Nigeria must be good at home to be good outside.” – Obasanjo
“The situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get my brother Jonathan off the horse is playing itself out again.” – Obasanjo
“1 knew President Buhari before he became President and said that he is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy but I thought that he could make use of good Nigerians in that area that could help.” – Obasanjo
“Although, 1 know that you cannot give what you don’t have and that economy does not obey military order.” – Obasanjo
“There were serious allegations of round-tripping against some inner caucus of the Presidency which would seem to have been condoned. I wonder if such actions do not amount to corruption and financial crime, then what is it?” – Obasanjo
“I thought President Buhari would fight corruption and insurgency…” – Obasanjo
“And it is a sad symptom of insensitivity and callousness that some Governors, a day after 73 victims were being buried in a mass grave in Benue State without condolence, were jubilantly endorsing President Buhari for a second term!” – Obasanjo
“… 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.” – Obasanjo
“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 Mama: collusion, condonation, ineptitude, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship and friendship… How many similar cases are buried, ignored or covered up and not yet in the glare of the media and the public?” – Obasanjo
“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 effct on general national security.” – Obasanjo
“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.” – Obasanjo
“Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today.” – Obasanjo
“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
“Kinship and friendship that place responsibility for governance in the hands of the unelected can only be deleterious to good government and to the nation.” – Obasanjo
“But whatever may be the state of President Buhari’s health today, he should neither over-push his luck nor over-tax the patience and tolerance of Nigerians for him, no matter what his 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 say.” – Obasanjo
“President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from the horse… Without impaired health and strain of age, running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7.” – Obasanjo
‘President Buhari 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.” – Obasanjo
“1 only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age… Buhari does not necessarily need to heed my advice. But whether or not he heeds it, Nigeria needs to move on and move forward.” – Obasanjo
“1 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.” – Obasanjo
“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 – Obasanjo
“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?” – Obasanjo
“We need moral re-armament and engaging togetherness of people of like-mind and goodwill to come solidly together to lift Nigeria up.” – Obasanjo
“This is no time for trading blames or embarking on futile argument and neither should we accept untenable excuses for non-performance.” – Obasanjo
“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.” — Obasanjo
“What has emerged from the opposition has shown no better promise from their antecedents. As the leader of that Party for eight years as President of Nigeria. I can categorically say there is nothing to write home about in their new team.” – Obasanjo
“A situation where the elected will accountably govern and every Nigerian will have equal opportunity not based on kinship and friendship but based on free citizenship.” – Obasanjo
