Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obansanjo, have lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari, accusing him of shielding corrupt
members of his cabinet and advising him not to contest in 2019 for a fresh
mandate.
The Ogun High Chief, who made these claims in a 13-page statement
on Tuesday, titled The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria
Movement, added that whoever is “going to justice must be with clean hands.”
“But there are
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. This has grave consequences on performance of his government to
the detriment of the nation.
“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 Maina: collusion, condonation,
ineptitude, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship and
friendship on the part of those who should have taken visible and deterrent
disciplinary action? How many similar cases are buried, ignored or covered up
and not yet in the glare of the media and the public?
“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 effect on general national
security.
“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. Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on politics and because
our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today. 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 also
berated Buhari for allowing the clashes between herdsmen and farmers to go
“sour” and messy, saying the endorsement of the President by some Governors to
seek re-election barely 24 hours after 73 people who were killed by herdsmen in
Benue State were given mass burial, was “a sad symptom of insensitivity and
callousness.”