Elder statesman and a chieftain of a Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of reducing himself to President of Katsina.
Adebanjo was reacting to a statement written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, rubbishing the Buhari-led government.
The leader of the influential Afenifere group, also addressed the issue of restructuring, saying it should be clear now to Buhari and all those opposed to it that it was the solution to the key challenges facing the country.
He said, “If Buhari has been sincere about keeping Nigeria together in peace, he should have called them to address their grievances but he intimidated and wanted to butcher and kill them in their land. It shows in everything that he does that he is the President of Katsina State and not of Nigeria!”
Speaking on Obasanjo’s letter, the elder statesman said, “When Obasanjo said both APC and PDP cannot take us anywhere, I agree with him. But any party Obasanjo is interested in, I am out of it because Obasanjo will not support anything except he has vested interest. I am interested in the message and not the messenger on this occasion.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo painted a gloomy picture of the state of the nation under the Buhari administration in his letter to the President. Is the situation that bad? It is very perilous. We are in a situation where the captain does not have a clue on how to save his ship. Things are so bad and he feels he is doing his best. And his supporters are not helping him.
They don’t seem to tell him the true situation of the country. There is no petrol, the roads are bad, electric power is irregular; he promised to create about three million jobs each year but people have been losing about six million jobs every year.
And the best his spokesperson will say is that “we are doing our best and you will soon see the result”.
One of them said they were doing investigation on the killings in Benue. Buhari has no capacity to defend the people and one of the obligations of his office is to safeguard lives and property. And to imagine that the killings have continued is the worst dereliction of duty on the part of the President.
It is so unfortunate that the President has not said a word of condolence to the people of Benue since the herdsmen’s attacks started.
Even when the people requested to see him, he did not invite them. He didn’t consider the situation grievous enough to sympathize with them. When they later decided to see him, he didn’t even feel remorseful to tell them ‘sorry’. What he told them was to go and accommodate herdsmen.
To show you how callous Buhari and this government are, the day following the massacre in Benue, some APC governors went to the state to declare their full support for his election in 2019. The government was elected on the mantra of anti-corruption.
Is it not sad that some of those he appointed into his cabinet which took six month to constitute have corruption allegations hanging on their necks and he turned a blind eye? And was it not until when people began to shout about SGF Babachir Lawal who was indicted for corruption that he was sacked and the EFCC recently went after him? This is an administration that says it has zero tolerance for corruption. The Minister of Interior collaborated with the Attorney-General of the Federation to meet with a suspected looter of pension funds in a foreign country and these officers have remained untouched.
Buhari and APC were not elected to give excuses for non-performance, they were elected to make our lives worthwhile, that is the mandate we gave them. They were not elected to protect criminals, murderers. It is extreme tolerance to allow them stay till 2019. If they truly understand what restructuring is, they will know that it is the key to all these challenges, even to insecurity.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari, not to stand for re-election in 2019.
Musa said Buhari’s administration had failed to protect Nigerians from poverty and security challenges in the country.
Speaking in reaction to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s memo to Buhari over the state of the nation, Musa made it clear that Obasanjo was part of those that campaigned in 2015 to remove former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
“In the first place, is Obasanjo deceiving us? This is because Obasanjo is one of those who supported Buhari for the Presidency as a civilian candidate. Didn’t he know Buhari more than we know him, as they were in the Army together and were doing everything together? In 2015, Obasanjo knew Buhari more than we civilians ever knew him, and he recommended him for the Presidency.
“Now, he can regret ever recommending Buhari for certain reasons. Did he express such regret in his letter? Why does he want us to believe him if he is not suitable for 2019? We already know that Buhari’s government is a failure. Let us make our own decision. The situation in Nigeria today is terrible. Is this a government?” he queried.
Musa argued further: “The state of the nation is negative and it has been so since the Army took over since 1966. For some years after Army take over, we have seen traces of improvement, particularly in the case of national unity. But after four years of military rule, we saw the negative state of Nigeria growing even more.
“Now, the state of the nation in many respects has gone so bad. What we expect would happen would inevitably happen. There will be a constitutional or proletarian revolution in Nigeria with the present situation. Whether we like it or not, if constitutional revolution will not work, there would be a proletarian revolution, because the state of the nation is so negative and people are suffering so much.
“The economy is in the dark and this government is not capable of providing solution. We must change the philosophy of basing things on self-interest first and public interest second or even secondary. Otherwise, we have to change the social economic and political system controlling all areas of development in the country.
“We can do this effectively by bring in the leading role of the state in the economic development to ensure peace, equality, dignity of the human person and progressive development of the country. You cannot do this by market economy, which has never progressed any country since after the world wars and colonialism,” Musa said.