Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says President Muhammadu Buhari is incompetent, accusing him of condoning corruption within the Presidency.
This is contained in a blistering special press release issued by the former President on Tuesday.
According to him, even though Buhari should be given some credit in his fight against insurgency and corruption, such act of condoning “corrupt” practices also amounts to corruption itself.
“There were serious allegations of round-tripping against some inner caucus of the presidency which would seem to have been condoned,” he added.
Obasanjo’s “issues” with Buhari also arose from his claim that apart from the fact that the president lacks the knowledge of how the economy works, he has “failed” to employ capable hands in this area.
He also said the President had failed to make up for his “weakness” in the workings of the foreign affairs sector.
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“I knew President Buhari 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,” he said.
Obasanjo further accused Buhari of “wittingly or unwittingly” allowing the clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the country to turn “sour and messy.”
He said it is a minus for the federal government that the herdsmen rampage “continues with careless abandon and without finding an effective solution to it.”
Another sin of Buhari, according to Obasanjo, is the “clannishness” that has characterized his administration.
According to him, the president has also been unable to bring discipline to bear on “errant members of his nepotic court”.
While noting that it appears “national interest was being sacrificed on the altar of nepotism,” the former president listed the case of Abdulrasheed Maina, former pension boss, to fore: “What does one make of a case like that of Maina: collusion, condoning, ineptitude, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship and friendship on the part of those who should have taken visible and deterrent disciplinary action?
The former president also accused Buhari of having a “poor understanding” of the dynamics of internal politics. He said such “weakness” from the president has cost the nation its unity.
“This (‘poor understanding’ of the dynamics of internal politics) has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced,” he said.
According to him, he and other Nigerians voted “brother” Jonathan out because in 2015, it was a matter of “any option but Jonathan”.
He, however, expressed worry that “the situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get my brother Jonathan off the horse is playing itself out again. My letter to President Jonathan titled: ‘Before It Is Too Late’ was meant for him to act before it was too late. He ignored it and it was too late for him and those who goaded him into ignoring the voice of caution.