Nigeria: Buhari’s government is nothing but a total failure – Obasanjo

Nigerian former President Olusegun Obasanjo said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is nothing but a total failure considering how millions of Nigerians have been disappointed by his government.

Obasanjo, who recently wrote an open letter to Buhari on his displeasure about his (Buhari’s) government, said the president has no excuse not to impress Nigerians who voted him en-mass some three years ago.

The former President, who addressed mammoth crown at his presidential library villa in Abeokuta while playing host to the New Nigeria 2019 Group, said the current administration has indulged themselves so much with excuses and blames on past administration.

According to the former President, Buhari and his party, APC has succeeded in bringing different hardships on Nigerians with the running of ineffective economic policies that have crippled several businesses in the country.

He also lamented that Buhari and his party had been parading an uncharitable character with the manner they have continued to whine about challenges almost three years.

“As I said, stop giving excuses; we met challenges. If there are no challenges, then we wouldn’t need you to come. You come in because you know there were challenges and then giving us an excuse that you have many challenges; that is why you haven’t achieved results.”

Obasanjo also called on Nigerians not to elect Buhari’s failed government back in office come 2019, adding that it will be unwise for Nigerians to call back to the office a set of people who are incompetent and had failed the whole nation for four years.

 “And then you still want to go. The first lesson I learned in my military training is never reinforced failure. What we have now is failure. Never you reinforce failure. Let failure be failure,” Obasanjo asserted.

Former President Obasanjo also censured the major opposition party in Nigeria, Peoples Democratic Party, while he told the citizenry not to be deceived by recent the apology tendered by the party to Nigerians over their past misdeeds.

He advised that new set of people must be elected to buy new future and hope for the country.

 “The truth is this: When you have an ineffective and incompetent government, we are all victims. And don’t let anybody deceive you. Those of you who are in business, your business could have been better today if we have a competent and effective and performing government, And if you do not see what you should see, you will then be a victim of what you don’t like because it is only when you see what you should see and you do what you should do that you put away what you do not like”, Obasanjo posited.

He continued that “But this time, for us to make it, we need all hands on deck. You see, I have publicly said and I mean it that as a party, neither PDP nor APC can get us there… never mind about reforms and apology and all that.”

Obasanjo also admonished the group that visited him on the need to commence serious work and also to shun any move by p0ower intoxicated politicians to divide them with various weaponry of propaganda.

“I am happy to meet with you, but don’t take anything for granted. There will be a lot of work that we have to do. What those I call power addicts would want to do is to divide you based on gender, age, tribe, religion, and region. You have one commonality – interest of Nigeria. And it doesn’t matter where you come from.”

He also insisted that it is time for grass-roots movements are empowered to fight the government in the country, adding that Nigeria has never had a true political party with grass-roots power.

He said, “I asked one of the foundation members of the PDP; the PDP when we started, was it a grass-roots party? He said it was an elitist party. Really, we have never had a grass-roots party. Even NEPU (Northern Elements Progressive Union) which we could say is the nearest was not grassroots enough. And I believe strongly that we must have a strong popular grass-roots movement to bring about the change, sustainability, and stability that we need in our democracy and development”, Obasanjo maintained.

Obasanjo also called for the coming together of different movements to save the country from quagmire it has been sunk by APC government.

 He maintained that “But let us bring together all these movements because we are pursuing the same thing. If we allow ourselves to be taken piecemeal, it is finished. Yes, I said you cannot take the PDP as it is an APC as it is; but they are not all made of evil people. There are good people. I said the PDP is leprous hand, APC is leprous hand, but there are some clean fingers in them. So, let us take those clean fingers in them and graft the clean fingers onto our own.

“That is the way to go and if we go that way, we will get there, we will move together and we will move fast and we will move far”, Obasanjo added.

While responding, the presidency said it would not join issues with the former president over his comments on Buhari’s administration.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, who responded to Obasanjo’s comments in a telephone interview on Channels Television, said the assessment was not new.

Adesina said “Already, the statement issued a few months ago by the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, in response to the earlier criticism made against the government by Obasanjo had adequately addressed the issues raised’’.

He also said the APC-led Federal Government would not seize from making reference to the failure of past administration.

Adesina also boasted that Buhari’s administration had successfully tackled problems of Nigeria’s economy which has now yielded enormous foreign reserve like never before.