The Presidency has reacted albeit unofficially, to former president Olusegun Obasanjo's recent comments on the state of affairs under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, claiming that the country was fast drifting into a failed and badly divided state under Buhari.
Though the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, did not respond to a message sent to him on the subject, the top official who did not want to be named said: “Obasanjo is yesterday’s man. After he had come against President Buhari and lost the election, you don’t expect anything positive from him.”
Chief Obasanjo had said Thursday that the many challenges facing the country today, were the products of recent mismanagement of the diversity and socio-economic development of the country.
“Old fault lines that were disappearing have opened up in greater fissures and with drums of hatred, disintegration and separation and accompanying choruses being heard loud and clear almost everywhere,” Obasanjo said, as reported by Daily Trust.
He, however, called for concerted efforts of all stakeholders towards “moving Nigeria from tipping over.”
The former president also called for a national dialogue, saying it would save Nigeria from disintegration.
He expressed concern that some Nigerians had been obsessed with the 2023 general elections, despite the challenges of debt, death, destruction and disease across the country.
Reacting in support of Obasanjo, the spokesman of the pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the country is indeed, drifting towards a failed state, saying, “All the indices of a failed state are very apparent in Nigeria.”
He said this was made worse because of the leadership of the country which he noted is not “unifying” and “treats some sections of the country as if they don’t matter.”
“There is a clear and present danger in the country now which we must address,” he said.
He said the president had in the past five years failed to fulfill his promises anchored on three cardinal programmes to Nigerians, wondering how he would achieve the nine-point programme he recently unveiled in the about two years left for him in office.
He said the government must set its priorities right, adding that the president must bequeath in the country a “proper constitution that will make every part of the country productive.”
“Remember in 2015, he campaigned on three key areas which he has failed to deliver in five years. Now that he has two years to go, he said he wants to address nine. We must get clear priority areas,” he said.