North tackles Obasanjo for criticising Buhari govt

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been tackled by the the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for his comlaint of imbalance in President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Obasanjo has insisted that Buhari is driving Nigeria towards instability with the lopsided structure of the APC government.

But the ACF Secretary General Anthony Sani, said the complaint by the former president not grounded.

“Is the former president expecting President Buhari to ignore the choices of the electorate? Or is he expecting the president to jettison the place of seniority in the judiciary in favour of political consideration? That would be unhelpful,’ said Anthony yesterday in Kaduna.

According to him, all the posts in the nation’s governance structure except that of acting Chief Justice of Nigeria are elected positions which cannot be tampered with by the president, considering democracy is majority rule.

“In multi-party democracy, there is the imperative for motivation through reward for hard work, albeit there are times when Danegeld theory of rewards for bad behaviour also comes into play. But this is very rare.”

Sani also noted that the constitution compels the president to appoint at least a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation—to address whatever imbalance the electoral process might have created.

“This takes care of inclusion and promotion of sense of belonging among constituents that can be helped through affirmative actions applied for the disadvantaged whose circumstances of birth are not of their choice,” he said.

Obasanjo has been a tireless critic of Buhari’s administration since the president decided to run for a second term in 2017.

The political enmity between the two has worsened since Buhari won the second term, to defeat PDP candidate and Obasanjo former vice president Atiku Abubakar.