President speaks on Obasanjo's open letter

After three months of silence, President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the open letter written to him by former Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo.

In the letter, Obasanjo described the Buhari government as a failure while advising the President to forget his 2019 reelection bid.

Information minister, Lai Mohammed, had reacted to the letter describing it as a distraction.

Speaking in Bauchi on Thursday, April 26, 2018, President Buhari commended the information minister for a job well done.

“Tonight, I want to remind you people of what Lai Mohammed did when a letter was written on our failure as an administration,” Buhari said.

“Lai Mohammed was agitated about replying but I said no. I said no for two reasons: one, he is much younger than the person who wrote the letter and myself; two, he is from the same constituency as the person who wrote the letter.

“But when Mohammed came again, I said he should go out but he said he won’t go. I asked why and he said, let me give him a chance to say what he wanted, then I said go on. He said in what he would do, he would not mention names but only try to remind Nigerians what the country was when we came in, where we are now, and what we have done with the resources available to us.

“Eventually, I had to admit that he was right and I was wrong because a number of people who could get in touch with me have said that Lai did a good job. A lot of them are in the media… I am very happy with the performance of our party, the All Progressive Congress,” he added.

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The President also reflected on the circumstances surrounding his exit from the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).

“I will like to go down some historical antecedents so that people can assess. When we were in the ANPP, I went through an impartial primary and I won the ticket. I think for the third or fourth time and while I was in court, because I felt I was ready to be president, the person who was to be my vice-president, allowed himself to be appointed by the presidency.

“The chairman and vice-chairman of the party accepted; even when I was still in court as a presidential candidate. That’s why I got out and formed the CPC; when we realised that if we don’t work together, that is the opposition parties, and wrestle power from the PDP, this country would have sunk,” he emphasized.

President Buhari also advised northern youths to shun violence and embrace education.