Bullet Points Of What Former President Obasanjo Told Buhari In His Widely Read Statement

These are bullet points of what former President Obasanjo told President Buhari in his widely read statement.

• President Buhari’s poor performance in office is marked by widespread poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, encouragement of misdeeds, inability to bring about national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics.
• Nigeria’s situation in the last decade has provided proof that the country has consistently failed to get her act together, a reason she has lost respect on the international stage. 
• This was what made me go against my own political Party (PDP), in the 2015 general elections and support the opposition. 
• It was not personal, but in the best interest of Nigeria, Africa and humanity at large.
• Former President Jonathan, with whom I have maintained a very cordial relationship at all levels has come to realize his mistakes in office and has publicly, commendably, expressed regrets about them.
• He still has a role to play on the sidelines for the good of Nigeria, Africa and humanity, but not as President again.
• The situation that made Nigerians vote Jonathan out of office is, again, staring Nigerians in the face.
• President Buhari’s weaknesses were well known to me and I spoke and wrote about then before I and other Nigerians voted for him because was a matter of “any option but Jonathan” (AOBJ).
• My letter to former President Jonathan titled: “Before It Is Too Late” was a call to him to act before it was too late.
• The former President ignored my letter to his detriment and that of those who advised him to ignore my warning.
• Sycophants and media lynch mobs may be hired against me for verbal or even physical attacks.
• But if I survived undeserved imprisonment and was ready to pay the ultimate price for Nigeria, no sacrifice is too great to make.
• No human leader is personally strong or self-sufficient in all aspects of governance. 
• President Buhari has a poor grasp of the economy, but I expected him to use experts in that area.
• Economy does not obey military orders and you have to give it what it takes in the short-, medium- and long-term.
• He also has a poor grasp of foreign affairs, but I expected him to use Nigerians with expertise in that area.
• There have been serious allegations of round-tripping made against some of the closest people to the Buhari Presidency and these seem to have been condoned. 
• These not amount to corruption and financial crimes.
• President Buhari has continued to turn a blind eye to these instead of arresting the trend.
• I believed that President Buhari would fight corruption and insurgency and he has earned some credit in those areas, but there is still work to be done.
• The Fulani herdsmen/farmers issue has been allowed to become debilitating.
• President Buhari’s government gets no marks for its failure to find an effective solution to the menace of the herdsmen.
• The endorsement of President Buhari for another term of office by some governors, a day after 73 victims of herdsmen were buried in a mass grave in Benue State, was symptomatic of insensitivity and callousness. 
• The administration of President Buhari needs to design a response to the herdsmen/farmers conflict in a way that protects life and properties of both sides and makes them to live amicably in the same space.
• President Buhari, however, has shocked Nigerians most with his nepotistic deployment, bordering on clannishness, and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotistic kitchen cabinet.
• This has gravely affected his performance in office to the detriment of Nigeria.
• National interest has been sacrificed for nepotistic interest.
• The reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, the pension thief, into the Civil Service is proof of collusion, condonation, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship/friendship on the part of those who should have taken visible and deterrent disciplinary action.
• Many cases like this have probably been kept away from the public and the media or ignored by the government.
• President Buhari’s almost non-existent understanding of the dynamics of internal politics has further divided the country and made inequality more pronounced in a way that has badly affected national security.
• Another major flaw of President Buhari is buck passing.
• He has been blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for devaluation of the naira by 70% or so and blaming past governments for it, an indication of lack of willingness to accept his own responsibility.
• The economy is driven by politics and because Nigerian politics is depressing, the Nigerian economy has slipped into greater depression.
• If the country was in good shape, President Buhari would not have been required in office.
• He was voted to knock the country into shape, not to engage in perennial blame game.
• The Nigerian constitution lists, as one of the cardinal responsibilities of the President, the management of the economy of which the value of the naira is an integral part.
• While President Buhari’s brittle health merited the sympathy and prayers, he should avoid overstretching his luck or over-taxing the tolerance of Nigerians for him, irrespective of what bootlickers around him say.
• President Buhari should not stand for re-election; he should go home and rest so that the country can use his wealth of experience on the sidelines when he is fully recovered. 
• Even without the issue of his brittle health, his advanced age makes him unsuitable to run the affairs of Nigeria.
• As a brother, I advise President Buhari not to seek re-election on account of his age.
• President Buhari may not heed my advice. 
• Irrespective of that, Nigeria needs to move on and move forward. 
• The two major political parties, APC and PDP, I maintain are wobbly platforms.
• That the chief kingmaker of the PDP has insisted he must give direction to the party because he procured the Supreme Court judgement for his faction of the party portends danger.
• Choosing between the two is akin to a distinction without a difference.
• From its antecedents, the PDP has shown no better promise.
• As its leader for eight years as President of Nigeria, I can confidently say that the party’s new their new team is hopeless.
• Nigeria has only one choice: Coalition of the concerned and the willing - ready for positive and drastic change, progress and involvement.
• The type of change that will give hope and future to innovate and work energetically at ideas and concepts in which they can make their own original inputs. 
• The youth must be part of the action today and not relegated to leadership oftomorrow, which may never come.
• The type of change Nigeria needs is one that will result in enhancement of living standards and progress for all and under which the elected will accountably govern, offer equal opportunity not based on kinship and friendship but on free citizenship.
• Nigerians must not sit by lamenting hopelessly.
• The current situation is similar to the one in the country was at the return of democracy in 1999, when the country was on the precipice and dark clouds gathered politically, economically and socially.
• The price of oil at that time was nine dollars per barrel and Nigeria had a debt overhang of about $35 billion.
• Most people were confused with lack of direction in the country.
• A factor that saved the country was a near- government of national unity put in place to navigate see the country through the dark cloud.
• My government used people at home and from the Diaspora and we navigated through the dark cloud.
• Where the country is a matter of choice.
• Nigeria can still choose differently to make the necessary and desirable change, once again. 
• Everywhere I go, Nigerians are angry and in anguish 
• .But Nigerians can deploy to the anger to rescue the country from the position in which it currently is.
• Self-pity, fruitless complaints or protests are impotent. 
• Constructive, positive engagement and collective action and moral re-armament are what the country needs.
• Nigerians must accept that the present administration has performed to the extent of its ability, aptitude and understanding. 
• The administration and its political party need to agree that they have done the best they could and are incapable of doing better.
• Nigeria deserves and urgently needs better than what they have given or what the country knows they are capable of giving.
• Asking them to give more is unrealistic and will only sentence Nigeria to a prison term of four years, if not destroy it irredeemably.
• Albert Einstein told the world that doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result is the height of folly.
• Nigerians are already committing suicide on account of the unbearable socio-economic situation they find themselves in.
• While Nigerians love life, continually hoping that will be well is self-deceit.
• Democracy is sustained and measured not by leaders doing extraordinary things, (invariably, leaders fail to do ordinary things very well), but by citizens rising up to do ordinary things extraordinarily well. 
• Nigeria’s democracy, development and progress, at this time, require ordinary Nigerians to do the extraordinary things of changing the course and direction of lustreless performance and development 
• If leadership fails, citizens must not fail.

Source: Sahara Reporters