Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja; Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti; Chinelo Obogo
Nigerians have continued to react to the blistering criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. While some lauded the former president’s intervention and joined forces with him to campaign against President Buhari’s re-election in 2019, others believe his criticism was not only self-serving but in bad taste.
Obasanjo had called on Nigerians not to reinforce incompetence in 2019 by voting out the All Progressives Congress (APC) government led by Buhari, which he said has failed judging by the results of the last three years and its numerous excuses for non-performance.
To the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, the call by Obasanjo vindicated his position that the Buhari has nothing to offer the country.
According to Fayose in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti by his media aide, Lere Olayinka: “What Obasanjo said is not new from what I said before and after President Buhari was elected. I have consistently maintained that the president lacked the required mental, physical and intellectual capacity to govern a country like Nigeria and now, I have been vindicated by even those who were at the forefront of his election.”
Similarly, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, former works minister admonished President Buhari to listen to Obasanjo, former minister of defence, General T. Y. Danjuma as well as other elder statesmen, who have criticised his administration in recent times.
“Buhari should not allow people advising him to mislead him. When people of that calibre are talking in a nation, the president should listen. They don’t talk for their sake alone. They are talking for a purpose. And the most important thing is for Mr. President to call them to a meeting,” he stated.
For allegedly foistering Buhari on the nation, Ebun Adegboruwa said the Obasanjo lacked the moral authority to reverse himself and tell the country who to vote for.
“He introduced us to the late president Musa Yar’Adua, but that was aborted because of Yar’Adua’s demise. He then introduced us to Goodluck Jonathan, but that didn’t work; he is also now saying that Buhari is a failure. It means that out of the three projects that he introduced to us, it didn’t work because none has taken us to our Eldorado. As a citizen of Nigeria, Obasanjo has the right to assess any administration, but he is not in a position to guide us on who to vote for, especially because of our three previous experiences over those he had recommended to us,” Adegboruwa said.
Notwithstanding his role in Buhari’s emergence, spokesman of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said Obasanjo’s assessment of Buhari is apt.
“We have an incompetent and ineffective administration that is not performing well. It is not a crime that Obasanjo participated in bringing this administration to power because every Nigerian has the right to support any government he wants. It is only barbarians who go after people for their choices in a democracy like some people are doing. But if those who supported him now realise that he is not performing well and they have said it out, that, to me, is a mark of courage.”
However, elder statesman, Tanko Yakkasai accused Obasanjo of shedding ‘crocodile’ tears, because, according to him, he knew Buhari’s antecedents and capacity having worked together in the military, but chose to support him nonetheless.
Reacting on his official twitter handle, Festus Keyamo reminded Nigerians that during the first four years of Obasanjo, he kept blaming the rot the military left behind as the reason for his abysmal performance and begged Nigerians to be patient with him, to the extent that he allegedly knelt down for Atiku to get his second term ticket.
Also on twitter, an All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator, Shehu Sani, said “criticising the actions of government is a right, defending the actions of government is a choice.”
Meanwhile, a political party, Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) said Nigeria must do away with the Buhari-led APC government in 2019.
In a statement signed in Abuja by the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT), Adekoya Adebola, ANN called on Nigerians to ensure that the 2019 election is a test of competence and not sentiments or political blackmails typical of previous elections.
Adebola said despite the noise of economic and political progress being made by the ruling party, the economy is still struggling without a clear strategic direction by Buhari to revamp the ailing economy inherited from its predecessors.
As he urged Nigerians to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) ready, he promised that his party would foster growth, development and peace.