'Nigeria near collapse, needs rescue'

A former President Olusegun

Speaking during a visit to Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the leader of the Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, in Ondo state on Monday, May 21, 2018, Obasanjo said the collapse of Nigeria would be disaterous.

While recalling his encounter with the Afenifere leader, the former Nigerian President called for the corporation of the group to save the country from falling apart.

“I remember visiting Pa Abraham Adesanya thrice in Lagos before the 1999 election and I was asked to join Afenifere and Alliance for Democracy then, but I told them that AD was a cul-de-sac,” Obasanjo said according to Punch.

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“Pa Abraham told me that if I joined, things would change; but I refused to join them. I went back the second time, but they refused to work for my emergence.

“I went there again the third time, but Afenifere maintained their stand. They refused to vote for me; but I secured my votes outside Yorubaland, though they supported me in 2003 for my re-election.

“Our priority is now one. If we do not join hands to repair this country now, it will collapse and this could be disastrous,” he added.

Obasanjo commended Afenifere for being at the forefront of fighting for the interest of the Yoruba nation while he was working towards the interest of the country as a whole.

He noted that the two parties were working towards the same goals of fostering unity among the people of the country but on a different pedestal.

The Afenifere leader commended Obasanjo for his struggle to make Nigeria a better place, assuring him of the support of the group to join hands with him in the struggle.

“Nigerians are at a crossroads; we are tired of the killings, kidnapping going on across the country and the President is mute about it," said Pa Fasoranti.

“We are in full support of all the letters written by Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation. We are dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country. The country is not being run properly.

“Nothing is being done properly in this country presently. Look at the killings in the North. The President is very silent about it.

“We are all Nigerians. If he can keep silence about the killing of his people, that is bad enough.”

The Afenifere leader declared that the group was in total support of the coalition of political parties to forge alliance against President Muhammadu Buhari in the next general election.

“It will be the joy of everybody to present a formidable team to confront the evil government that is there now,” Fasoranti declared.

Obasanjo had advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in his open letter in January 2018.