Nef spokesman Ango Abdullahi lashes out at Obasanjo for daring to criticise Buhari

NORTHERN Elders Forum (Nef) spokesman Professor Ango Abdullahi has lashed out at former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for daring to criticise President Muhammadu Buhari in a recent 13-page open letter.

Last month, Chief Obasanjo published an open letter criticising President Buhari's handling of the economy and his inability to provide security, particularly in the light on increasing attacks from Fulani cattle herdsmen. In the letter, Chief Obasanjo suggested that President Buhari should not run for office again in 2019 and should retire gracefully to his country home in Daura.

Since publishing the letter, Chief Obasanjo has attended functions of a new association called the Coalition for Nigeria Movement, which is expected to field a presidential candidate against President Buhari next year.  In a stinging response, Professor Abdullahi described Chief Obasanjo’s criticism of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government as a shame to the ex-president who once sought a third term, yet is now parading himself as the holy father of Nigeria.

Professor Abdullahi said: “Nigerians are very good at blame games, blame others for some of their own faults. This is what we have been doing over the years, trading blames, instead of looking at problems objectively together and trying to find common solutions to them.

"I can give you an example, the former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari is one. From onset, I am not defending the president or anybody in government but looking at the letter on the basis of Obasanjo himself, a two times former leader in Nigeria, the thing that is baffling me is that he is claiming to be the holy father of the Nigerian project."

He added that Chief Obasanjo was the head of state between 1976 and 1979 and he has forgotten that he was the president for eight years between 1999 and 2007. According to Professor Abdullahi, he tried to manipulate the constitution to elongate his tenure beyond what was constitutionally allowed.

"Here is a man that sees himself as the only perfect former president of Nigeria. I remember very well that he didn’t spare former President Shehu Shagari, who succeeded him in 1979, he didn’t spare Buhari who toppled Shagari, he also lashed out at Ibrahim Babangida during his own tenure and he still went after Abacha and so on.

“I cannot understand how Nigerians are hailing him and I couldn’t believe that the only perfect former head of state is Obasanjo. It is even a shame that we allow this kind of space in the mind, and also in the political space of this country, to try and claim this and using it as one of the African leaders and so on, and roam around the world on our behalf," Professor Abdullahi added.

Also, professor Abdullahi dismissed the APC committee report on restructuring chaired by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai. According to him, the report was the position of some of the party leaders and not that of Nigerians.