In their opinion, “it is the consequences of Obasanjo’s failures that the government and Nigeria have continued to deal with in the present.”
The Buhari camp, in an article written by the coordinator of the Buhari Media Support Group, Austin Braimoh, criticised Obasanjo for exploiting “moment of national pains to claim patriotism,” describing him as predictable and opportunistic.
Obasanjo had, in the letter addressed to Buhari, entitled: “The way out: A clarion call for Coalition for Nigeria movement,” called on the president not to run in the 2019 presidential election, citing how his administration had failed in addressing ongoing killings in the country, as well as accusing him of nepotism and condonation of corruption.
But in a strongly worded reaction, the Buhari Media Support Group described the letter as perfidious and opportunistic.
“Obasanjo’s most recent outing this week surprises no right-thinking citizen. It was a perfidious, but not surprising effort to exploit another moment of national crisis. There are controversies around killings in clashes between nomads and sedentary farming communities; there is an increasing polarisation of the country, as we descend into the season of politics; and there are determined efforts by the political forces that lost out in 2015.
“They have been out of the loop of power for a few years; have resided in political wilderness since, but are determined to find newer routes to access public money-access to which has been blocked by TSA. They are fighting back furiously and these forces have substantial interest in media and in social media. 2018 offers the most serious preparatory point for an onslaught on the Buhari administration. But these forces suffer a credibility issue with the Nigerian people, who have not forgotten what they made of power in the previous 16 years, before they lost it in 2015! Now who was the head of that monstrous era but the old, disgraced despot, Olusegun Obasanjo? Obasanjo is fighting for his corner, and that is not a pretty place to be in, because even he knows that he does not occupy a moral high ground in Nigerian politics and administration,” the statement read in part.
Waku bombs OBJ over his letter to Buhari
Senator Joseph Waku, on Saturday, bombed former President Olusegun Obasanjo following the letter in which he called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quit at the expiration of his tenure in 2019, accusing him of playing God.
Waku, who spoke to Sunday Tribune in a telephone interview, described the former president as the ‘destroyer’ of democracy in Nigeria, noting that he lacked the moral right to condemn the president.
He explained that the administration of Obasanjo, who served as president from 1999 and 2007, was enmeshed in corruption, ineptitude and mismanagement of Nigeria resources.
The interaction went thus:
Aftermath of former President Obasanjo’s letter, we learnt that politicians are realigning to have a coalition movement, as a strong politician in the Middle Belt, what is your position?
Who is Obasanjo? Is he not the one who destroyed democracy in this country? He is acting as he if he is God. Who is he to tell Nigerians who they should follow? If Nigerians do not want Buhari, let them say it, but it is not for Obasanjo to dictate the tune to Nigerians.
Why did you say this sir?
Have you forgotten that Obasanjo wanted a third term? A president that is yet to complete his first term, he is telling him not to contest.
But what is the position of politicians in the Middle Belt ahead of 2019?
We are in APC and we still remain in APC.
So does that mean politicians in the zone are not strategising for 2019?
Well, any Nigerian is entitled to the highest office in the country. But what is the problem with Obasanjo? He destroyed the economy. He got 16 billion dollars to give us light but he ended up giving us darkness. Can Obasanjo stop Buhari from running in the next election?
Obasanjo raised the issue of killings in his letter?
Is it only during Buhari that we are witnessing killings of innocent people by herdsmen? Worse things happened during the Obasanjo administration. Have you forgotten how he ordered the killings of our people in Zaki Biam and the destruction he meted out to the village of former Chief of Army Staff, the late General Victor Malu?
He destroyed the economy of the North; do you know that all banks belonging to northerners were destroyed? Obasanjo used anti-graft agencies to witch-hunt his perceived political enemies. He conscripted governors under his government to build a library.
But with all these, are you saying the Middle Belt is not ready take a shot at the presidency?
I told you earlier that every Nigerian is entitled to the highest office in the country.
There are insinuations that one of your sons in the North-Central, David Mark, is being pressurised to contest?
I don’t know what you are saying, I am not his spokesman. He has not come to me that he is interested in the Presidency.
2019: UPN disagrees with Obasanjo on letter to Buhari
The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) has described Obasanjo’s letter to Buhari as a mischief, saying the former president’s advice to the incumbent not to run in 2019 as amounted to undermining his constitutional right.
The position of the party was contained in a statement by its National Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi Sokoto.
“Obasanjo’s advice to Buhari not to run in the 2019 election is the highest act of mischief from someone who wanted to illegally elongate his tenure through a third term bid. Someone like Obasanjo should not be telling someone not to pursue his legitimate and constitutional right.
“If Obasanjo believes Buhari has not performed, let him and his like-minds mobilise Nigerians to vote him out in 2019. We believe he will have a large number of following, particularly those corrupt persons who believe removing Buhari from power will ease their trouble with the anti-corruption agencies,” the party stated.
The party, however, advised the Federal Government to heed the advice of the former president by redoubling its efforts in addressing the herders and farmers’ crisis.
OBJ should be commended for the letter—Raji, SAN
In a reaction to the letter, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Ahmed Raji, commended Obasanjo “for speaking his mind and sharing his thoughts” in the letter addressed to President Buhari.
Raji expressed confidence that since the former president had spoken his mind, he believed the issues raised would be resolved at the appropriate level and that Nigeria would be the better for it.
He said: “Both President Obasanjo and President Buhari are eminent and great leaders, with Baba Obasanjo as the senior. I am confident the matter will be resolved at the appropriate level and the nation will be better for it. We should commend our Baba, the great Ebora Owu, for speaking his mind and sharing his thoughts. It stops there. The topic is not for every Tom, Dick and Harry.”
OBJ’s letter should have advocated restructuring
—Ebiseni
However, constitutional lawyer and former Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State, Mr Sola Ebiseni, said Obasanjo’s letter would amount to a temporary comic relief without the fundamental restructuring of the federation, saying that the former president “dismounted the horse too early” by not advocating the restructuring before the rituals of electing new leaders.
According to Ebiseni, in a statement entitled: “Between process and structure,” “only those not familiar with the Nigerian political situation, particularly in the last two decades, will not expect an epistle from Obasanjo at this time.”
Ebiseni maintained that though there was nothing novel in the former president’s letter, not even the declared need for a third force, any act that is in symphony with the mindset of Nigerians at this period was welcome, adding that the former president is welcome on board in the initiative to rescue the country.
“My hunch is that the proposed Coalition for Nigeria (NC) will turn out, at best, a new political party and, if it has the strength, be a platform for bringing up new set of rulers, who are no angelic Nigerians after all. Buhari voted for process and not structure, in his New Year message. By merely suggesting a Third Force process, Obasanjo is also not different from Buhari in his intellectual conceptualisation of solution to our problems. The pertinent questions is, does Obasanjo not see anything wrong in the structure of the Nigeria federation, which breeds or is permissive of the ills that handicapped him and remains Buhari’s albatross, as certainly will be for any new leader(s) that might emerge from his proposed CN?,” Ebiseni queried.
and then