Buhari must go, Obasanjo insists ! When Will you Go Obasanjo ?

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has insisted that
the country’s current president Muhammadu Buhari must be voted out
when the West African nation goes to poll in 2019.

Obasanjo, who supported Buhari in 2015 against Goodluck
Jonathan, said in a statement on Sunday that his former ally had
done almost nothing to reposition the country.

Buhari rode into power in 2015 on the wings of populist promises
of remodelling the economy, fighting biting insecurity, especially
in northeast Nigeria and rein in the reign of corruption that has
blighted the country for decades.

But critics like the former president said Buhari’s government
has performed way below expectations.

In January, the former president accused Buhari
of being nepotistic^[1] and said the
president was lacking in the requisite capacity to make Nigeria
better.

Obasanjo acknowledged his complicity in making a man who he said
“is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy” the
president. He said he thought that Buhari could make “use of good
Nigerians in that area.”

“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,” Obasanjo said
in a 13-page statement titled ‘The Way Out: A Clarion Call for
Coalition for Nigeria Movement’ at the beginning of the year.

He doubled down on those claims in the Sunday statement issued
by his media aide Kehinde Akinyemi.

Akinyemi said his principal believes that “only a fool will sit
on the fence or be neutral when his or her country is being
destroyed with incompetence, corruption, lack of focus, insecurity,
nepotism, brazen impunity and denial of the obvious.”

That Sunday statement came after a News Agency of Nigeria’s
report said Obasanjo had chosen to be a neutral participant as
Africa’s most populous nation prepares for general elections.

The report noted that Obasanjo had shifted “gear to neutral,
from outright partisanship and endorsement of the opposition
candidate.”

“It is disingenuous, if not malicious, for anyone to suggest
that Chief Obasanjo was being neutral when he chose not to use the
Owu Convention as a platform for political campaign but instead
adopt a communal and familial approach in talking to members of his
Owu family,” Akinyemi said.

“For the records, and as accurately reported by some media
organisations, what the former president said at the convention in
Iwo was that while he would not impress any candidates on them,
Nigerians should vote for credible candidates who will drive growth
and development and make their lives better than it is now.”

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