12 things we learnt from ex president's letter to Buhari

We picked 12 things from Baba Iyabo’s letter to Buhari…

1. Obasanjo says Buhari’s government has performed poorly

There were harsh words from the beginning of this letter, for the Buhari administration.

“The lice of poor performance in government - poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed - if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future…”, Obasanjo wrote.

2. Buhari’s knowledge of internal politics is really poor, according to Obasanjo

Here are Obasanjo’s words: “Lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality - are very much with us today.

"With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood”.

3. Obasanjo doesn’t care if anyone attacks him for turning against Buhari

“I know that praise-singers and hired attackers may be raised up against me for verbal or even physical attack but if I can withstand undeserved imprisonment and was ready to shed my blood by standing for Nigeria, I will consider no sacrifice too great to make for the good of Nigeria at any time”, he wrote.

4. Buhari’s poor knowledge of the economy was glaring from the start, says Obasanjo

“No human leader is expected to be personally strong or self-sufficient in all aspects of governance. I knew President Buhari before he became President and said that he is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy but I thought that he could make use of good Nigerians in that area that could help.

"Although, I know that you cannot give what you don’t have and that economy does not obey military order”.

5. There was some pass mark for Buhari on fighting insurgency and waging a war against corruption

“I thought President Buhari would fight corruption and insurgency and he must be given some credit for his achievement so far in these two areas although it is not yet uhuru!”

Some credit at long last, yeah?

6. Obasanjo tears into Buhari over the herdsmen crises

“The herdsmen/crop farmers issue is being wittingly or unwittingly allowed to turn sour and messy. It is no credit to the Federal Government that the with careless abandon and without finding an effective solution to it.

“And it is a sad symptom of insensitivity and callousness that some Governors, a day after 73 victims were being buried in a mass grave in Benue State without condolence, were jubilantly endorsing President Buhari for a second term! The timing was most unfortunate”.

7. Obasanjo says Buhari is sectional and nepotistic

If you thought Buhari only favours persons from his own geopolitical region of the country when it comes to appointments, you aren’t alone.

“One is nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court. This has grave consequences on performance of his government to the detriment of the nation.

“It would appear that national interest was being sacrificed on the altar of nepotic interest. What does one make collusion, condonation, ineptitude, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship and friendship on the part of those who should have taken visible and deterrent disciplinary action?”

8. Obasanjo says Buhari has divided Nigeria

“How many similar cases are buried, ignored or covered up and not yet in the glare of the media and the public? The second is his poor understanding of the dynamics of internal politics.

“This has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced. It also has effect on general national security”.

9. Obasanjo wants Buhari to stop blaming the Jonathan administration

"… For instance, blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for devaluation of the naira by 70% or so and blaming past governments for it, is to say the least, not accepting one’s own responsibility.

“Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today.

“If things were good, President Buhari would not need to come in. He was voted to fix things that were bad and not engage in the blame game”.

10. Obasanjo tells Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019

If you've been under some rock, the president’s re-election campaign ship has since set sail.

Obasanjo isn’t amused though.

Here’s his take, since you asked:

“We all thanked God for President Buhari for coming back reasonably hale and hearty and progressing well in his recovery. But whatever may be the state of President Buhari’s health today, he should neither over-push his luck nor over-tax the patience and tolerance of Nigerians for him, no matter what his selfserving, so-called advisers, who would claim that they love him more than God loves him and that without him, there would be no Nigeria say.

"President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from the horse.

“He needs to have time to reflect, refurbish physically and recoup and after appropriate rest, once again, join the stock of Nigerian leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the sideline for the good of the country.

“His place in history is already assured. Without impaired health and strain of age, running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7. I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age. I continue to wish him robust health to enjoy his retirement from active public service”.

11. Obasanjo shades Wike

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, may not have been mentioned in Obasanjo's letter, but this paragraph had his name written all over it.

"The recent show of PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria. To claim, as has been credited to the chief kingmaker of PDP, that for procuring the Supreme Court judgement for his faction of the party, he must dictate the tune all the way and this is indeed fraught with danger".

12. Obasanjo says he's doing this for love of country

"Some may ask, Obasanjo has wanted nothing other than the best for Nigeria and Nigerians and he will continue to want nothing less".

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Let’s just say another gripping political season is now firmly upon us.