The five socio-cultural groups that held a two-day meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja last week have berated the Presidency for its condemnation of the meeting and the vicious attacks unleashed on Obasanjo for criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari of running the country aground and making Nigeria a basket case and a failed state.
“To say that the presidency chose to react in the manner it did to a responsible and credible initiative by our groups and a former president is, to put it politely, deeply disappointing and worrying. Our groups are not mouthpieces of President Obasanjo, and we will leave it to him to choose how he responds to the lamentable response of President Buhari to his initiative,” the groups said in a joint statement, adding: “In contrast, we are alarmed at the insensitivity of the Presidency, which will rather demolish patriotic and responsible action than take steps to address gaping holes in the manner it handles our national destiny, our security and our economy.”
The groups – the pan-Yoruba cultural association, Afenifere, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the apex Ibo group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), and Middle Belt Forum – yesterday described the government’s reaction as highly disappointing, and insisted that it would continue to meet with people of like minds with the sole aim of halting the nation’s drift into chaos and anarchy.
In the statement signed by Yinka Odumakin (Afenifere); Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed (Northern Elders Forum); Chief Guy Ikokwu (Ohanaeze Ndigbo); Sen. Bassey Henshaw (PANDEF), and Dr. Isuwa Digo (Middle Belt Forum), the groups insisted that they have no regret whatsoever in holding the meeting with Obasanjo. “For us, it is sufficient to say that we have no regrets or apologies to offer for making ourselves available to dialogue with each other, exchange ideas and re-commit ourselves to pulling our nation from the brink of precipice of No Return. The communiqué released at the end of our meeting, which we are confident is only the first of many, is a loud testimony to our levels of responsibility and maturity,” the groups explained.
“We are even more worried at this stage that a responsible and constructive effort to douse tensions, build bridges and restore hope in the potentials for the survival of our country as democratic and united entity will attract the type of childish vitriol from the Presidency, including labelling us as terrorists. Clearly, our current leaders are living in very deep denial if they do not recognize that our current situation represents an existential danger to the nation. We noted the commendable support of other leaders for the initiative, and the statesmanship of chairmen of Nigeria, APC and PDP governors‘ fora who attended the second day of the meeting and expressed genuine support for it,” the groups noted.
“Our fora are encouraged to pursue the time-tested strategy of engagement, dialogue and steadfast commitment to the future of our country as secure, united and just. We will continue to exercise our rights to meet and seek for solutions, and discharge our obligations to younger generations of Nigerians who deserve to live in a nation without its current frightening limitations. If the Presidency chooses to stay out, Nigerians have the right to ask what it is doing to address our deeply-embedded problems itself. President Muhammadu Buhari should know that Nigerians can distinguish between Nigerians who care enough to do something, and those with responsibility who choose to do nothing.”
Obasanjo had last Thursday said Nigeria was slowly becoming a failed state and a basket case that urgently needed to be pulled from the brink of collapse. Delivering a speech titled: “Moving Nigeria away from tipping over,” at a consultative dialogue attended by the five major socio-cultural groups, in Abuja, the former president said he had never seen Nigeria so divided, suggesting many of the problems bedeviling the country today were due to Buhari’s recent mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity. “I do appreciate that you all feel sad and embarrassed as most of us feel as Nigerians with the situation we find ourselves in. Today, Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state. Economically, our country is becoming a basket case and poverty capital of the world, and socially, we are firming up as an unwholesome and insecure country,” OBJ said.
In reaction, presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu admonished Obasanjo to sheath his sword and rest the “pretentiousness about the messiah that has led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.” Shehu in a statement ornamented with bile, vitriol and insultive grandiloquence, called Obasanjo a lowlife and Nigeria’s divider-in-chief. “From the lofty height of Commander-in-Chief, General Obasanjo has descended to the lowly level of Divider-in-Chief.”
Also in response, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, in a statement, said Nigeria was drifting after 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule before Buhari took power and brought the country back from the brink. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) also joined the shouting match, saying it was ironic that political actors that institutionalized corruption, impunity and eroded the country’s value systems are now offering lessons on good governance. Reacting to criticisms by OBJ, PDP and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, APC deputy national publicity secretary, Yekini Nabena, in a statement, dismissed them as lacking the antecedents and moral credentials to guide Nigeria, saying Nigerians have stopped taking them seriously.
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