“I only appeal to brother Buhari to consider a deserved rest at this point in time,” Obasanjo said on Tuesday in a special press release.
He said President Buhari does not necessarily need to heed my advice. But whether or not he heeds it, Nigeria needs to move on and move forward.”
"“Already, Nigerians are committing suicide for the unbearable socio-economic situation they find themselves in. And yet Nigerians love life. We must not continue to reinforce failure and hope that all will be well. It is self-deceit and self-defeat and another aspect of folly,” the ex-president said.
Obasanjo also complained about the president lack of understanding the dynamics of Nigerian political diversity, noting that "This has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced. It also has effect on general national security."
Another area the ex-president was disgusted with the present administration was the manner the president pass buck and blame others over what should have been his responsibility.
"The third is passing the buck. For instance, blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the devaluation of the naira by 70 percent or so and blaming past governments for it, is to say the least, not accepting one’s own responsibility.
"Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today. If things were good, President Buhari would not need to come in. He was voted to fix things that were bad and not engage in the blame game." Obasanjo fired.
He said our Constitution is very clear, one of the cardinal responsibilities of the President is the management of the economy of which the value of the naira forms an integral part.
According to him, kinship and friendship that place responsibility for governance in the hands of the unelected can only be deleterious to good government and to the nation.Obasanjo, who served two terms as an elected president from 1999 to 2007, backed Buhari in his 2015 election and defeat of then President Goodluck Jonathan by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to effect the first democratic transfer of power in the country of more than 180 million people.
He said “The situation that made Nigerians to vote massively to get my brother Jonathan off the horse is playing itself out again,” Obasanjo said.
Africa’s top oil producer is scheduled to hold presidential elections in February next year as well as vote for lawmakers and state governors. While Buhari hasn’t said if he’ll run, his potential candidature remains a subject of much interest after he spent a total of more than five months in London last year receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
“The character of the 2019 election has changed irrevocably, it’s going to be extremely difficult for Buhari now,” Jideofor Adibe, a professor of political science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, near the capital, Abuja, said by phone.
“This will embolden a number of people to challenge Buhari and it could also set him thinking whether seeking re-election is really worth it.”
After three failed attempts to win the presidency from 2003 to 2011, Buhari mustered a coalition of opposition parties that merged to become the ruling APC party. That coalition is now in tatters, with many members accusing the president of adopting a non-inclusive style and appointing cronies instead of competent people to key positions.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was Obasanjo’s number two and backed Buhari in 2015, left the APC last year and rejoined the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), accusing Buhari of ignoring senior party members and relying on a core of personal aides to govern. Abubakar is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in the coming vote.
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