📸Lai Mohammed
… Obasanjo now divider-in-chief, says Presidency
The Presidency yesterday challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to help in proffering solutions to the problems plaguing the country instead of being Nigeria’s divider-in-chief.
This is even as the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said yesterday that President Muhammadu Buhari’s assumption of office in 2015 prevented Nigeria from becoming a failed state.
Reacting to the recent statement by Obasanjo that Nigeria was becoming a failed state, the Presidency in a statement, called on him to quit critiquing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
“In his most recent statement, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s attempts to divide the nation, while President Muhammadu Buhari continues to promote nation-building and the unity of Nigeria.
“The difference is clear. From the lofty heights of Commander-in-Chief, General Obasanjo has descended to the lowly level of divider-in-chief (to adapt the coinage of Time),’’ the Presidency stated.
Obasanjo, according to the Presidency, should “once again sheathe the sword and rest the pretentiousness about the Messiah that has (mis)led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.”
The Presidency noted that Buhari’s comments on West African leaders sticking to their constitutionally-allowed terms is for the good of the region.
While accusing Obasanjo of a failed attempt at elongating his tenure, the Presidency called on him to stop the “mushrooming of a poisonous atmosphere of ethnic and religious nationalism.”
“Surely, he must have disappointed many of his local and foreign admirers by showering commendations on a few extremist groups who have vowed to shun the invitation to the National Assembly to participate in the process of constitutional amendment,” the Presidency added.
Describing Buhari as a courageous leader with “rare statesmanship,” the statement hailed him (Buhari) for shunning populism and seeking the best interest of Nigerians by reforming critical sectors of the economy.
“He leads a government that has liberalized the investment climate and market access by achieving reforms that have placed the country in the list of the world’s top reforming economies.
“Nigeria, which other nations had mocked and ridiculed for so many things that were wrong, is today progressing at a pace reflecting its size and potential,’’ the Presidency stated.
It flayed some politicians who, having previously failed in delivering quality leadership to the masses, were now bent on envying President Buhari.
Meanwhile, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s assumption of office in 2015 prevented Nigeria from becoming a failed state, after a long stretch of rapacious and rudderless leadership.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the minister said President Buhari came into office at a time a swathe of the country’s territory was under occupation, a period when many Nigerian towns and cities, including the capital city of Abuja, were a playground for insurgents and a moment that the nation’s wealth had been looted dry, with little or nothing to show for the nation’s huge earnings, especially in the area of infrastructure.
He said it was, therefore, a cruel irony that those who frittered away a great opportunity to put Nigeria on a sound socio-economic footing, at a time of financial buoyancy, and those who planted the seed of the insecurity in some parts of the country, were the same persons pointing an accusing finger at a reformist government.
“Nigeria today faces a lot of challenges. But whatever situation the country has found itself in, things would have been much worse but for the deft management of resources, unprecedented fight against corruption, determined battle against insurgency and banditry as well as the abiding courage of Mr. President in piloting the ship of state,
“Nigeria today is not a failed state, but a nation that is courageously tackling its challenges and building a solid infrastructure that will serve as the basis for socio-economic development, a nation that is unrelenting in battling insecurity and working hard to ensure greatest prosperity for the greatest number of people,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
He said no government in the history of the country has done so much with so little, as Buhari’s administration is doing at present, adding that with 60% less national income, the administration is making progress on all fronts and setting the country on the path of sustainable growth and development.
He added: “They tout the downturn in economic fortunes without putting things in context. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a global shutdown and a drastic fall in global oil demand, Nigeria lost 60% of its earnings, yet the administration has ensured that not a single worker has been retrenched, has paid salaries as and when due and has continued to build infrastructure, such as roads, rails, bridges and power, among others, that will serve many generations.”