Ten Things we learnt from Obasanjo’s open letter to President Buhari

Following the 13 pages letter Written by former Nigeria president Olusegun Obasanjo to President Buhari, calling him to bow out of any pursuit for a second term re-election in 2019.

However, the letter has generated a lot of response from Nigerians, especially on social media platforms.

Considering the lengthy nature (13 pages) of the said letter, NAIJAPARY have summarized the main focus of the letter in this post.

Points stressed in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Buhari.

1. For Africa to move forward, Nigeria must be one of the anchor countries, if not the leading anchor country. It means that Nigeria must be good at home to be good outside.

2. Even the horse rider then, with whom I maintain very cordial, happy and social relationship today has come to realise his mistakes and regretted it publicly and I admire his courage and forthrightness in this regard. He has a role to play on the side line for the good of Nigeria, Africa and humanity and I will see him as a partner in playing such a role nationally and internationally, but not as a horse rider in Nigeria again. (Talking about Jonathan)

3. Buhari is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the country’s economy. “I knew President 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”.

4. “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 herdsmen rampage continues with careless abandon and without finding an effective solution to it”.

b.) Sad symptom of insensitivity and callousness among some Governors. “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.

5. President Buhari has revealed his real identity. “But there are three other areas where President Buhari has come out more glaringly than most of us thought we knew about him. One is nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court.

“(i) 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.

(ii) The third is passing the buck. 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”.

6. “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.

7. Obasanjo reffered to President Buhari as “brother Buhari”. “I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age”.

8. Where we are is a matter of choice. “Where we are is a matter of choice but we can choose differently to make a necessary and desirable change, once again”.

9. Obasanjo suggests coalition movement. “We have only one choice left to take us out of Egypt to the promised land. And that is the coalition of the concerned and the willing – ready for positive and drastic change, progress and involvement”.

10. Our youths should be empowered to deploy their ability. “Our youths should be empowered to deploy their ability to learn, innovate and work energetically at ideas and concepts in which they can make their own original inputs. Youth must be part of the action today and not relegated to leadership of tomorrow which may never come”. Towards the end of the letter, former president Olusegun Obasanjo suggested the creation of a group, Coalition of Nigeria, (CN) that sees to the interest of Nigeria.

He added that he will also love to join the group when it is created and headquartered in Abuja.