LETTER TO BUHARI: Obasanjo made good points, in a bad manner – Sagay

A Professor of Law, Itse Sagay (SAN), on Monday said the letter by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari was done with good intention, but for the manner it was presented which made it childish.

Obasanjo in the letter released by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, had expressed worry over the high level of insecurity in the country.

But Sagay who spoke with newsmen on Monday over the development said he agreed with Obasanjo on the points raised in the letter to Buhari on the state of the nation.

“As far as I’m concerned, Obasanjo’s main motive is publicity, the capacity to embarrass the President, and for adulation.

“He sustains a mentality of being superintendent-general of Nigeria and not accepting that he is no longer in power. It’s all part of it.

“What he said could have easily been communicated by phone; the letter could have been delivered privately. I find writing it to the whole country immature and childish. He made a serious point, and then spoilt it by the way he presented it.

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“If he had said it quietly to the President, it would have been acceptable. Is he not embarrassed that he’s the only former president doing it? Gowon and Abubakar are there, just to mention two. Even Jonathan, who was defeated by Buhari, is there. It’s too childish and immature. It takes away from the quality and the strength of the message he’s trying to deliver,” he said.

Sagay also urged Buhari to sustain efforts in tackling rising insecurity.

“Is the President not already doing that? Can he be the President and not be concerned? Already, the Vice President has spoken of steps being taken – that the roads are going to be heavily monitored by the Police and soldiers.

“I don’t disagree too much with Obasanjo on substance. It is his style that I disagree with, as well as the so-called conference of ethnic stakeholders. I don’t see its relevance. We’ve held so many other conferences out of which nothing came except mutual abuse and insults.

“I think what the President should do is to sustain a very vigorous onslaught and not rest until the bandits and insurgents are rooted out and Nigeria is made safe again.

“He is already doing it and he must sustain it so that we can be free of this menace to our freedom and peace of mind,” Sagay added.

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