‘Never reinforce failure. What we have now is failure’, Obasanjo amplifies attack on Buhari

Months after his much-circulated letter criticising President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance in office and urging him not to seek reelection, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has once again strongly criticised Buhari, asking Nigerians to vote against him in 2019.

Obasanjo, Monday called on Nigerians to be careful not to re-elect a “failed government” as they would be the chief victims.

The former president spoke during a visit to his Ogun State home by a ‘New Nigeria 2019 Group’ led by Chima Anyaso, the convener, and Moses Siasia, co-convener.

He said it will be willful invitation of misfortune for Nigerians to “reinforce failure” by re-electing the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari in 2019.

He criticised the APC-led federal government for allegedly bringing hardship on Nigerians through poor economic management that has harmed businesses.

Obasanjo also condemned his former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He asked Nigerians not to accept the opposition party’s recent apology, saying both APC and PDP could not fix Nigeria.

“But this time, for us to make it, we need all hands on deck. You see, I have publicly said and I mean it, that as a party, neither PDP nor APC can get us there as they have been. Never mind about reforms and apology and all that.

“And yet we have to get there. I asked one of the foundation members of PDP, the PDP when we started, was it a grassroots party? He said it was an elitist party. Really, we have never had the so-called grassroots party. Even NEPU which we could say is the nearest was not grassroots enough. And I believe strongly that we must have a strong popular grassroots movement to bring about the change, sustainability and stability that we need in our democracy and development.

“I am happy to meet with you, but don’t take anything for granted. There will be a lot of work that we have to do. What those I call power addicts would want to do is to divide you based on gender, age, tribe, religion and region. You have one commonality – interest of Nigeria. And it doesn’t matter where you come from. We had that interest.

Read also: Buhari should be number one on looters’ lists, followed by those in his govt –Fayose

“The truth is this: when you have an ineffective and incompetent government, we are all victims. And don’t let anybody deceive you. Those of you who are in business, your business could have been better today if we have a competent and effective and performing government. As I said, stop giving excuses; we met challenges. If there are no challenges, then we wouldn’t need you to come. You come in because you know there are challenges and then giving us excuse that you have many challenges, that is why you haven’t achieved results.

“And then you still want to go. The first lesson I learnt in my military training is never reinforce failure. What we have now is failure. Never you reinforce failure. Let failure be failure. And if you do not see what you should see, you will then be a victim of what you don’t like because it’s only when you see what you should see and you do what you should do that you put away what you do not like. And if you don’t see what you should see and you don’t do what you should do, you will be a victim of what you don’t like.”

He, however, said he believed some members of the APC and PDP still had integrity and could help Nigeria succeed.

“But let us bring together all these movements because we are pursuing the same thing. If we allow ourselves to be taken piecemeal, it is finished. Now if we are together… Yes, I said you cannot take PDP as it is and APC as it is; but they are not all made of evil people.

“There are good people. I said PDP is leprous hand, APC is leprous hand, but there are some clean fingers in them. So, let’s take those clean fingers in them and graft the clean fingers in our own. That is the way to go and if we go that way, we will get there, we will move together, and we will move fast and we will move far,” he told his guests.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now