Buhari desperate, won’t get my support for 2nd term in office- Obasanjo

Speculations that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo would respond to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent remark accusing him of being ‘abusive’ and lacking respect for his office materialized on Wednesday.

But the immediate trigger for his response was news that gained grounds earlier which suggested that Obasanjo had become apologetic for comments made by him in a recent letter to Buhari wherein he referred to him as largely incompetent and ineffective in his administration of the country.

Speaking Wednesday, however, via a statement credited to him, Obasanjo vehemently denied singing Buhari’s praise over his performance in a recent meeting with President Donald Trump of the the United States of America.

Short of describing Buhari’s diplomatic outing in the US as a disaster, Obasanjo accused him of bungling an opportunity to market Nigeria and extract maximum benefits from his host, Trump. He also described the purported change of heart toward the Buhari presidency as a ‘fallacy’.

His statement read in part, “It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that some elements in the Muhammadu Buhari camp and or support group are desperate to secure a second term, fair or foul.

Read also: Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan misruled Nigeria –Buhari

“In this desperation, everything is fair, including telling libelous lies against persons and institutions, instead of addressing the fundamental issues of statecraft and economic management.

“In the last 24 hours, the Internet has been bombarded with deliberate falsehoods aimed at hoodwinking the unsuspecting Nigerians to believe that Obasanjo has now supported Buhari for his second term, because of some perceived Buhari’s ‘superlative’ performance in his encounter with Trump during his visit to the White House in Washington D. C.

“In another breath, these blackmailers insinuated that Chief Obasanjo met with some Nigeria Labour Congress leaders in his house in Abuja on Workers’ Day.
“What a pathetic fallacy! Chief Obasanjo never met any Labour man or woman on May 1, 2018, to make any supposed volte-face to support Buhari.”

The Presidency has yet to react officially to Obasanjo at the time of filing this report.

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