Newspaper review: Don’t contest in 2019, Obasanjo warns Buhari

The newspaper review for Wednesday, January 24, leads with former president Olusegun Obasanjo's letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, urging the Nigerian president not to contest in 2019 among other stories.

This day reports that former president Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday, January 23, set the polity ablaze when he passed a vote of no confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that the president lacks the capacity to govern Nigeria and therefore needs a dignified and honourable exit.

In a 13-page statement titled, “The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement,” Obasanjo advised the president not to seek re-election in the 2019 general election, saying Nigeria deserves and urgently needs better than what Buhari has given or what Nigerians know he is capable of giving.

Expectedly, reactions came hard and fast, with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), like the presidency, electing not to comment on the statement.

However, the meeting of the ruling party’s National Working Committee (NWC), which took place Tuesday at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, ended abruptly once the leadership of the APC got wind of Obasanjo’s bombshell.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on the other hand, described the advisory by the former president as courageous, timely and patriotic, while the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM) was jubilant and saluted the former president for his acumen and vision, and for calling on Nigerians to join forces with the movement to rescue the country from the impunity and inertia of the two dominant parties – PDP and APC.

In the statement reminiscent of the letter he wrote to former President Goodluck Jonathan in the run up to the 2015 elections, Obasanjo said Buhari lacks the capacity to govern Nigeria.

Advising him not to seek re-election in the 2019 general election, he said Nigeria deserves and urgently needs better than what Buhari had given or what Nigerians know he is capable of giving.

On Buhari’s party, APC, Obasanjo added that to ask the party to give more would be unrealistic and would only sentence Nigeria to a prison term of four years if not destroy it beyond the possibility of an early recovery and substantial growth.

In the last few months, Buhari’s many critics had wondered why the former president had refused or failed to write his “usual letter” to Buhari, in view of the prevailing biting socio-political and economic crises in the country.

The former president, in his statement, said Buhari had performed far below expectations, advising him to with honour “dismount from the horse”— not to seek re-election in 2019 general election, and join the league of the nation’s former leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach could be deployed on the sidelines for the good of the country.

This day newspaper for Wednesday, January 24, photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to run for a second term.

He accused the President of nepotism, having a poor understanding of politics and engaging in blame games rather than accepting responsibility for his failure.

Obasanjo said he worked against his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to help the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Buhari win the last presidential election.

But, the situation that made Nigerians to vote massively for Buhari, he said, is playing itself out again.

The former President, who recently bagged a doctorate degree in Christian Theology from the National Open University (NOUN), issued a “Special Press Statement”, titled: The way out: A clarion call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement, which he gave the media in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Obasanjo said: “The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condoning 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’,” Obasanjo said.

The former President urged Buhari not to run for a second term, saying the President needs “a dignified dismount from the horse”.

“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.”

The Nation newspaper for Wednesday, January 24, photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has questioned President Muhammadu Buhari’s competence to rule Nigeria further, advising him to forget his second term bid.

He spoke on Tuesday in a special press statement titled, ‘The Way Out: A clarion call for coalition for Nigeria Movement.’

The former President told Buhari not to test the patience of Nigerians, advising him to consider a deserved rest after the completion of his first term.

He said, “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.”

Obasanjo said he supported Buhari in 2015 over the then incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, adding that his decision to go against Jonathan, who was in the same party with him, was the right decision then.

He said, “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.”

Likening the present state of the nation to lice-invested clothes, Obasanjo noted that the country’s fingernails were stained with blood as it tried to kill the lice by pressing them in-between two fingernails.

He said, “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.”

Punch newspaper for Wednesday, January 24, photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.

Cheif Olusegun Obasanjo has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against taking part in the 2019 presidential election saying that ‘the situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get my brother Jonathan off the horse is playing itself out again.’

And that at this point President Muhammadu Buhari should consider a deserved rest.

‘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.’ Obasanjo said

Vanguard newspaper for Wednesday, January 24, photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, warned President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in the 2019 polls.He urged the incumbent not to “over push his luck” or “over tax the patience and tolerance of Nigerians, no matter what his self-serving, so-called advisers” say.

Obasanjo also cautioned that the factors that made Nigerians vote out Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, was again at play.

In a letter titled: ‘The Way Out: A Clarion Call For Coalition For Nigeria Movement’, he maintained that Buhari needed 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 sidelines for the good of the country.”

He said: “Without impaired health and the strain of age, running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7,” and appealed to Buhari to “consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age.”He stressed: “President Buhari does not necessarily need to heed my advice,” but insisted: “Whether or not he heeds it, Nigeria needs to move on and move forward.”