The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have differed over the recent statement credited to Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
At a recent public appearance, the former president said the nation was becoming a failed state under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former president spoke in Abuja at a consultative dialogue attended by various socio-cultural groups including Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, Northern Elders Forum, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo and Pan Niger Delta Forum.
He said: “Today, Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state; economically our country is becoming a basket case and poverty capital of the world, and socially, we are firming up as an unwholesome and insecure country.”
“And these manifestations are the products of recent mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country.”
APC
Spanking the former president, however, the APC asked Nigerians to ignore Obasanjo, his former deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and other PDP leaders who allegedly presided over the national rot while in office.
The APC said it’s baffling that the same political actors responsible for the rot, corruption, impunity and erosion of value systems were the same posing as voices of reason in the country’s national life.
APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena said this in a statement in Abuja Sunday.
It said: “While it is within the rights of these political actors to write “skewed letters, spew empty, hypocritical, tongue-in-cheek and two-faced economic magic models in line with their Dubai meeting strategies, this administration is walking the talk with verifiable projects and people-centred interventions that is uplifting Nigerians.
“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo could start with telling us where the electricity is despite $16billion he spent on the power sector.
“Obasanjo’s deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should account for the privatisation exercise under his watch which saw national assets sold off to friends and cronies with no benefit to the country. Successive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations can also start by accounting for the trillions stolen from our national coffers in the guise of a fraudulent fuel subsidy regime.
“These political actors probably only listen to their own voices because Nigerians have long stopped taking them seriously as they simply lack the antecedents and moral credentials to guide Nigeria and Nigerians to the path of prosperity and progress.”
Secondus defends ex-president
But in a counter position, PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus commended the former president and some Nigerian elders for standing up to save the country from ‘drifting.’
He also urged President Buhari and his party – the APC – to listen to voice of wisdom, saying the situation in the country called for patriotic men and women to stand up to be counted.
In a statement by his media aide, Mr Ike Abonyi and made available to journalists Sunday in Abuja, he said: “President Muhammadu Buhari and his ruling All Progress Congress, APC, to dispose themselves to absorbing the words of wisdom and stop grandstanding even as the nation under their watch is going down.
“The PDP National Chairman admonished the President to save the country from getting progressively worse by conducting free, fair and credible election in Edo state on September 19, 2020.
“Prince Secondus speaking also against the backdrop of the low mood in the country as a result of the multiplicity of taxation, tariffs and security challenges amid biting economic hardship, warned that it would amount to pouring salt into an open wound to deny the people the right to chose who should govern them.
“Democracy strives well under rule of law and this is all the people of Edo state are asking for, to let their will prevail on September 19, 2020
“To deploy military and other security agencies to do election duties outside the one statutorily assigned to them as was witnessed in 2019 general election and the gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa and Kogi state clearly undermines democracy.”
Presidency fires back
Also in a reaction, the Presidency said Obasanjo “attempts to divide the nation while President Muhammadu Buhari continues to promote nation building and the unity of Nigeria.”
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said this in a statement in Abuja.
Shehu said: “In his most recent statement former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempts to divide the nation while President Muhammadu Buhari continues to promote nation building and the unity of Nigeria.”
“The difference is clear. From the lofty heights of Commander-in-Chief, General Obasanjo has descended to the lowly level of Divider-in-Chief (to adapt the coinage of Time).
“Before responding further to the unfair attacks on President Buhari and his administration by the former President, it is important that we categorically state that contrary to the assertions by a few analysts, the recent speech in which President Buhari advised West African Presidents against tenure elongation beyond constitutional limits has been consistent with his long held views on the need to adhere to the rule of law.
“Even though he tried it and failed, the recent uptick in the number of such leaders proposing to do, or actually carrying on in office beyond term limits is sufficient to cause concern among democrats in the sub-region given its prospects of destabilizing the states and the region.
“President Buhari’s advocacy is consistent with his principles and in line with the current policies of his administration and indeed that of the ECOWAS Charter which is that term limits must be respected and that the change of government is only permissible through the ballot box.”
On Obasanjo’s remarks, the presidency said: “Having cleared this misperception, we hope that Chief Obasanjo would once again sheath the sword and rest the pretentiousness about the Messiah that has (mis)led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.
“As some commentators are already suggesting, Chief Obasanjo should, in accordance with his mantra as a statesman, get involved with problems solving, when and where they exist instead of helping the mushrooming of a poisonous atmosphere of ethnic and religious nationalism.
“Surely, he must have disappointed many of his local and foreign admirers by showering commendations on a few extremist groups who have vowed to shun the invitation to the National Assembly to participate in the process of constitutional amendment.
“No doubt, he must have left those admirers confused in announcing the support for the boycott of a democratic process of changing the constitution, at the same time calling for dialogue and engagement.
“The fact that the process he ushered in under his administration with the dubious intention of amendments that sought tenure elongation failed-as did two other attempts by the successor administrations of the same political party- does not in any way justify his dismissal of the exercise by the 9th Assembly as a another waste of time and resources.
“To the credit of the All Progressives Congress-led 8th Assembly, the process of constitutional amendment was kick-started and carried through, paving the way for, among other benefits, the financial independence of local government councils, States Houses of Assembly and the country’s Judiciary. These changes have already been signed into laws by the President as mandated by the constitution.
“The recent decisions by the administration as they relate to subsidy withdrawal, helping to plug some of the most horrendous notorious holes and release of scarce resources for the more pressing needs of the people, has also not escaped the ire of the former president.
“It’s a known fact that the withdrawal of subsidies had been on the wish list of the Obasanjo-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. They failed in achieving these measures because, one there was a shared greed. They plundered the treasury as much as anyone could in the name of either subsidy or waiver with reckless impunity.”
Lai speaks too
Similarly, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said: “Those who genuinely love Nigeria will support, rather than subvert” the Buhari administration.
In a statement by his media aide, Mr Segun Adeyemi, the minister said Buhari assumed office 2015 to prevent “Nigeria from becoming a failed state, after a long stretch of rapacious and rudderless leadership.”
In a statement issued in Abuja Sunday, the minister said: “President Buhari came into office at a time that a swathe of the country’s territory was under occupation, a period when many Nigerian towns and cities, including the capital city of Abuja, were a playground for insurgents and a moment that the nation’s wealth had been looted dry, with little or nothing to show for the nation’s huge earnings, especially in the area of infrastructure.”
“It is therefore a cruel irony that those who frittered away a great opportunity to put Nigeria on a sound socio-economic footing, at a time of financial buoyancy, and those who planted the seed of the insecurity in some parts of the country today, are the same ones pointing an accusing finger at a reformist government.
”Nigeria today faces a lot of challenges. But whatever situation the country has found itself in, things would have been much worse but for the deft management of resources, unprecedented fight against corruption, determined battle against insurgency and banditry as well as the abiding courage of Mr. President in piloting the ship of state,
”Nigeria today is not a failed state, but a nation that is courageously tackling its challenges and building a solid infrastructure that will serve as the basis for socio-economic development, a nation that is unrelenting in battling insecurity and working hard to ensure greatest prosperity for the greatest number of people.”
He further said “no government in the history of the country has done so much with so little, as the Buhari Administration is doing presently. With 60% less national income, the administration is making progress on all fronts and setting the country on the path of sustainable growth and development.”
