The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), says former President Olusegun Obasanjo is suffering from a dearth of vision and the consistency required of a statesman.
General Secretary of the group, Anthony Sani, said this following Obasanjo’s endorsement of his former estranged Vice, Atiku Abubakar, who is now the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
Recall that Obasanjo had spent the better part of a decade calling Atiku all sorts of names in public and haranguing the man at every opportunity. Even Atiku needs a breather from relentless name calling.
Obasanjo practically invoked God’s fury on himself because of Atiku.
Sani noted that with the level of Obasanjo’s inconsistency, he may change his mind again and withdraw his support for Atiku before 2019.
He said Obasanjo as a statesman is expected to be an embodiment of national ideals and moral values for the nation.
The ACF scribe catalogued Obasanjo’s inconsistency, from tearing his PDP card and saying he would no more play partisan politics. Then Obasanjo formed a movement which he said is the third force only for him to convert it into a political party of ADC. Then the final act, the endorsement of former Vice President Atiku.
“If you consider what the former President has written about his former Vice President Abubakar Atiku to the extent of saying God would not forgive him if he endorsed Atiku for president, then you can hardly avoid the conclusion that common decency is yet to take root in our democracy, especially when regard is paid to the place of the former president in the order of things in Nigeria.
“President Obasanjo is a statesman who is expected to be an embodiment of national ideals and moral values for the nation. But the way he has conducted himself by tearing his PDP card and saying he would no more play partisan politics and forming a movement which he said is third force only for him to convert it to a political party of ADC, culminating in the endorsement of former VP Atiku reeks of inconsistency that comes with dearth of vision and conviction required of statesmen.
“That may explain why most Nigerians may be curt and dismissive of the former president out of fear that he is just like a reed who can change his mind before the day of elections in 2019.”
Asked whether the North will go with Obasanjo in endorsing Atiku, Sani said: “It is not possible for the whole North to be with former President Obasanjo in that endorsement precisely because the former Vice President is a major challenger of the incumbent President who is also a Northerner and a Hausa/Fulani Muslim.