Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.
Obasanjo offered the advice in a special press statement issued in Abeokuta on Tuesday.
“Whatever may be the state of President Buhari’s health today, he
should neither over-push his luck nor over-tax the patience and
tolerance of Nigerians for him, no matter what his self-serving,
so-called advisers, who would claim that they love him more than God
loves him and that without him, there would be no Nigeria say.
“President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from
the horse. He needs to have time to reflect, refurbish physically and
recoup and after appropriate rest, once again, join the stock of
Nigerian leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be
deployed on the side line for the good of the country.
“His place in history is already assured. Without impaired health
and strain of age, running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not
24/7,” Obasanjo stated.
Full text of the statement is reproduced below.
THE WAY OUT: A CLARION CALL FOR COALITION FOR NIGERIA MOVEMENT
Special Press Statement
By
President Olusegun Obasanjo
—————————— —————————— —————————— —-
Since we are still in the month of January, it is appropriate to
wish all Nigerians Happy 2018. I am constrained to issue this special
statement at this time considering the situation of the country. Some
of you may be asking, “What has brought about this special occasion of
Obasanjo issuing a Special Statement?” You will be right to ask such a
question. But there is a Yoruba saying that ‘when lice abound in your
clothes, your fingernails will never be dried of blood’.
When I was in the village, to make sure that lice die, you put them
between two fingernails and press hard to ensure they die and they
always leave blood stains on the fingernails. To ensure you do not have
blood on your fingernails, you have to ensure that lice are not
harboured anywhere within your vicinity.
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. With such lice of general and specific poor
performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of
‘blood’.
Four years ago when my PDP card was torn, I made it abundantly
clear that I quit partisan politics for aye but my concern and interest
in Nigeria, Africa and indeed in humanity would not wane. Ever since, I
have adhered strictly to that position.
Since that time, I have devoted quality time to the issue of zero
hunger as contained in Goal No. 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals
of the UN. We have set the target that Nigeria with the participating
States in the Zero Hunger Forum should reach Zero Hunger goal by 2025 –
five years earlier than the UN target date. I am involved in the issue
of education in some States and generally in the issue of youth
empowerment and employment.
I am involved in all these domestically and altruistically to give
hope and future to the seemingly hopeless and those in despair. I
believe strongly that God has endowed Nigeria so adequately that no
Nigerian should be either in want or in despair.
I believe in team work and collaborative efforts. At the
international level, we have worked with other world leaders to domicile
the apparatus for monitoring and encouraging socio-economic progress in
Africa in our Presidential Library.
The purpose of Africa Progress Group, which is the new name assumed
by Africa Progress Panel (APP), is to point out where, when and what
works need to be done for the progress of Africa separately and
collectively by African leaders and their development partners.
I have also gladly accepted the invitation of the UN
Secretary-General to be a member of his eighteen-member High-Level Board
of Advisers on Mediation.
There are other assignments I take up in other fora for Africa and
for the international community. For Africa to move forward, Nigeria
must be one of the anchor countries, if not the leading anchor country.
It means that Nigeria must be good at home to be good outside.
No doubt, our situation in the last decade or so had shown that we
are not good enough at home; hence we are invariably absent at the table
that we should be abroad.
All these led me to take the unusual step of going against my own
political Party, PDP, in the last general election to support the
opposite side. I saw that action as the best option for Nigeria.
As it has been revealed in the last three years or so, that
decision and the subsequent collective decision of Nigerians to vote for
a change was the right decision for the nation. For me, there was
nothing personal, it was all in the best interest of Nigeria and,
indeed, in the best interest of Africa and humanity at large.
Even the horse rider then, with whom I maintain very cordial, happy
and social relationship today has come to realise his mistakes and
regretted it publicly and I admire his courage and forthrightness in
this regard.
He has a role to play on the side line for the good of Nigeria,
Africa and humanity and I will see him as a partner in playing such a
role nationally and internationally, but not as a horse rider in Nigeria
again.
The situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get my
brother Jonathan off the horse is playing itself out again. First, I
thought I knew the point where President Buhari is weak and I spoke and
wrote about it even before Nigerians voted for him and I also did vote
for him because at that time it was a matter of “any option but
Jonathan” (aobj). But my letter to President Jonathan titled: “Before
It Is Too Late” was meant for him to act before it was too late.
He ignored it and it was too late for him and those who goaded him
into ignoring the voice of caution. I know that praise-singers and
hired attackers may be raised up against me for verbal or even physical
attack but if I can withstand undeserved imprisonment and was ready to
shed my blood by standing for Nigeria, I will consider no sacrifice too
great to make for the good of Nigeria at any time. No human leader is
expected to be personally strong or self-sufficient in all aspects of
governance.
I knew President Buhari before he became President and said that he
is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy but I thought
that he could make use of good Nigerians in that area that could help.
Although, I know that you cannot give what you don’t have and that
economy does not obey military order. You have to give it what it takes
in the short-, medium- and long-term. Then, it would move.
I know his weakness in understanding and playing in the foreign
affairs sector and again, there are many Nigerians that could be used in
that area as well. They have knowledge and experience that could be
deployed for the good of Nigeria.
There were serious allegations of round-tripping against some
inner caucus of the Presidency which would seem to have been condoned. I
wonder if such actions do not amount to corruption and financial crime,
then what is it? Culture of condonation and turning blind eye will
cover up rather than clean up. And going to justice must be with clean
hands.
I thought President Buhari would fight corruption and insurgency
and he must be given some credit for his achievement so far in these two
areas although it is not yet uhuru!
The herdsmen/crop farmers issue is being wittingly or unwittingly
allowed to turn sour and messy. It is no credit to the Federal
Government that the herdsmen rampage continues with careless abandon and
without finding an effective solution to it. And it is a sad symptom
of insensitivity and callousness that some Governors, a day after 73
victims were being buried in a mass grave in Benue State without
condolence, were jubilantly endorsing President Buhari for a second
term! The timing was most unfortunate.
The issue of herdsmen/crop farmers dichotomy should not be left on
the political platform of blame game; the Federal Government must take
the lead in bringing about solution that protects life and properties of
herdsmen and crop farmers alike and for them to live amicably in the
same community.
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.
Our Constitution is very clear, one of the cardinal
responsibilities of the President is the management of the economy of
which the value of the naira forms an integral part. Kinship and
friendship that place responsibility for governance in the hands of the
unelected can only be deleterious to good government and to the nation.
President Buhari’s illness called for the sympathy, understanding,
prayer and patience from every sane Nigerian. It is part of our
culture. Most Nigerians prayed for him while he was away sick in London
for over hundred days and he gave his Deputy sufficient leeway to carry
on in his absence.
We all thanked God for President Buhari for coming back reasonably
hale and hearty and progressing well in his recovery. But whatever may
be the state of President Buhari’s health today, he should neither
over-push his luck nor over-tax the patience and tolerance of Nigerians
for him, no matter what his self-serving, so-called advisers, who would
claim that they love him more than God loves him and that without him,
there would be no Nigeria say.
President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from the
horse. He needs to have time to reflect, refurbish physically and
recoup and after appropriate rest, once again, join the stock of
Nigerian leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be
deployed on the side line for the good of the country. His place in
history is already assured. Without impaired health and strain of age,
running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7.
I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this
point in time and at this age. I continue to wish him robust health to
enjoy his retirement from active public service. President Buhari does
not necessarily need to heed my advice. But whether or not he heeds
it, Nigeria needs to move on and move forward.
I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political
parties – APC and PDP – were wobbling. I must reiterate that nothing
has happened to convince me otherwise.
If anything, I am reinforced in my conviction. The recent show of
PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria. To claim,
as has been credited to the chief kingmaker of PDP, that for procuring
the Supreme Court judgement for his faction of the Party, he must
dictate the tune all the way and this is indeed fraught with danger.
If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria at
this crucial and critical time, what then do we do? Remember Farooq
Kperogi, an Associate Professor at the Kennesaw State University,
Georgia, United States, calls it “a cruel Hobson’s choice; it’s like a
choice between six and half a dozen, between evil and evil. Any
selection or deflection would be a distinction without a difference.”
We cannot just sit down lamenting and wringing our hands desperately
and hopelessly.
I believe the situation we are in today is akin to what and where
we were in at the beginning of this democratic dispensation in 1999.
The nation was tottering. People became hopeless and saw no bright
future in the horizon.
It was all a dark cloud politically, economically and socially.
The price of oil at that time was nine dollars per barrel and we had a
debt overhang of about $35 billion. Most people were confused with lack
of direction in the country.
One of the factors that saved the situation was a near government
of national unity that was put in place to navigate us through the dark
cloud. We had almost all hands on deck.
We used people at home and from the diaspora and we navigated
through the dark cloud of those days. At that time, most people were
hopelessly groping in the dark. They saw no choice, neither in the left
nor in the right, and yet we were not bereft of people at home and from
the diaspora that could come together to make Nigeria truly a land
flowing with milk and honey. Where we are is a matter of choice but we
can choose differently to make a necessary and desirable change, once
again.
Wherever I go, I hear Nigerians complaining, murmuring in anguish
and anger. But our anger should not be like the anger of the cripple.
We can collectively save ourselves from the position we find ourselves.
It will not come through self-pity, fruitless complaint or protest
but through constructive and positive engagement and collective action
for the good of our nation and ourselves and our children and their
children. We need moral re-armament and engaging togetherness of people
of like-mind and goodwill to come solidly together to lift Nigeria up.
This is no time for trading blames or embarking on futile argument
and neither should we accept untenable excuses for non-performance. Let
us accept that the present administration has done what it can do to
the limit of its ability, aptitude and understanding. Let the
administration and its political party platform agree with the rest of
us that what they have done and what they are capable of doing is not
good enough for us.
They have given as best as they have and as best as they can give.
Nigeria deserves and urgently needs better than what they have given or
what we know they are capable of giving. To ask them to give more will
be unrealistic and will only sentence Nigeria to a prison term of four
years if not destroy it beyond the possibility of an early recovery and
substantial growth. Einstein made it clear to us that doing the same
thing and expecting a different result is the height of folly.
Already, Nigerians are committing suicide for the unbearable
socio-economic situation they find themselves in. And yet Nigerians
love life. We must not continue to reinforce failure and hope that all
will be well. It is self-deceit and self-defeat and another aspect of
folly.
What has emerged from the opposition has shown no better promise
from their antecedents. As the leader of that Party for eight years as
President of Nigeria, I can categorically say there is nothing to write
home about in their new team. We have only one choice left to take us
out of Egypt to the promised land.
And that is the coalition of the concerned and the willing – ready
for positive and drastic change, progress and involvement. Change that
will give hope and future to all our youth and dignity and full
participation to all our women.
Our youth should be empowered to deploy their ability to learn,
innovate and work energetically at ideas and concepts in which they can
make their own original inputs. Youth must be part of the action today
and not relegated to leadership of tomorrow which may never come.
Change that will mean enhancement of living standard and progress
for all. A situation where the elected will accountably govern and
every Nigerian will have equal opportunity not based on kinship and
friendship but based on free citizenship.
Democracy is sustained and measured not by leaders doing
extra-ordinary things, (invariably, leaders fail to do ordinary things
very well), but by citizens rising up to do ordinary things
extra-ordinarily well. Our democracy, development and progress at this
juncture require ordinary citizens of Nigeria to do the extra-ordinary
things of changing the course and direction of our lackluster
performance and development.
If leadership fails, citizens must not fail and there lies the
beauty and importance of democracy. We are challenged by the current
situation; we must neither adopt spirit of cowardice nor timidity let
alone impotence but must be sustained by courage, determination and
commitment to say and do and to persist until we achieve upliftment for
Nigeria.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained and we believe that our venturing
will not be in vain. God of Nigeria has endowed this country adequately
and our non-performance cannot be blamed on God but on leadership.
God, who has given us what we need and which is potentially there, will
give us leadership enablement to actualize our potentiality.
The development and modernization of our country and society must
be anchored and sustained on dynamic Nigerian culture, enduring values
and an enchanting Nigerian dream. We must have abiding faith in our
country and its role and place within the comity of nations.
Today, Nigeria needs all hands on deck. All hands of men and women
of goodwill must be on deck. We need all hands to move our country
forward.
We need a Coalition for Nigeria, CN. Such a Movement at this
juncture needs not be a political party but one to which all
well-meaning Nigerians can belong. That Movement must be a coalition
for democracy, good governance, social and economic well-being and
progress.
Coalition to salvage and redeem our country. You can count me with
such a Movement. Last time, we asked, prayed and worked for change and
God granted our request. This time, we must ask, pray and work for
change with unity, security and progress. And God will again grant us.
Of course, nothing should stop such a Movement from satisfying
conditions for fielding candidates for elections. But if at any stage
the Movement wishes to metamorphose into candidate-sponsoring Movement
for elections, I will bow out of the Movement because I will continue to
maintain my non-partisan position. Coalition for Nigeria must have its
headquarters in Abuja.
This Coalition for Nigeria will be a Movement that will drive
Nigeria up and forward. It must have a pride of place for all
Nigerians, particularly for our youth and our women.
It is a coalition of hope for all Nigerians for speedy, quality and
equal development, security, unity, prosperity and progress. It is a
coalition to banish poverty, insecurity and despair. Our country must
not be oblivious to concomitant danger around, outside and ahead.
Coalition for Nigeria must be a Movement to break new ground in
building a united country, a socially-cohesive and moderately prosperous
society with equity, equality of opportunity, justice and a dynamic and
progressive economy that is self-reliant and takes active part in
global division of labour and international decision-making.
The Movement must work out the path of development and the
trajectory of development in speed, quality and equality in the short-
medium- and long-term for Nigeria on the basis of sustainability,
stability, predictability, credibility, security, cooperation and
prosperity with diminishing inequality.
What is called for is love, commitment and interest in our country,
not in self, friends and kinship alone but particularly love,
compassion and interest in the poor, underprivileged and downtrodden.
It is our human duty and responsibility so to do. Failure to do this
will amount to a sin against God and a crime against humanity.
Some may ask, what does Obasanjo want again? Obasanjo has wanted
nothing other than the best for Nigeria and Nigerians and he will
continue to want nothing less. And if we have the best, we will be
contented whether where we live is described as palaces or huts by
others and we will always give thanks to God.
I, therefore, will gladly join such a Movement when one is
established as Coalition for Nigeria, CN, taking Nigeria to the height
God has created it to be. From now on, the Nigeria eagle must continue
to soar and fly high.
CN, as a Movement, will be new, green, transparent and must remain
clean and always active, selflessly so. Members must be ready to make
sacrifice for the nation and pay the price of being pioneers and good
Nigerians for our country to play the God-assigned role for itself, for
its neighbours, for its sub-region of West Africa, for its continent and
for humanity in general.
For me, the strength and sustainable success of CN will derive
largely from the strong commitment of a population that is constantly
mobilized to the rallying platform of the fact that going forward
together is our best option for building a nation that will occupy its
deserved place in the global community. May God continue to lead, guide
and protect us. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment