Nigeria moving towards disaster under Buhari – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the country was moving towards disaster under President Muhammadu Buhari.

Obasanjo, who spoke in an interview with Premium Times, said the economy was unstable, added that the current administration had destroyed the war against corruption, which he said started during his administration.

The former Head of State backed the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the  February 23 presidential election.

He based his decision on the situation in the country, saying Buhari, who he accused of nepotism, was also too old to run for a second term.

Obasanjo said, although Buhari was re-elected, he believed the country was on the edge of the  precipice.

He said, “The progress we are making may be questionable –Is it fast enough? Is it steady enough? Is it stable enough? Are we taking two steps forward and one step backwards  or one step sideways?

“You can question that, but we have no choice but to be on (the) path  of  sustainable development. Any other thing will be a disaster. In fact, the pace at which we are going now is tending more and more towards disaster and instability and unsustainability.”

Obasanjo said he was worried that the first three top officials of government were from a particular region.

He said the situation had called for concern as it was against  the constitution.

He said, “Now, you have a situation where three top officials of government will be from only two northern zones. Ahmed Lawan is from the North-East, the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria is from the North-East, the President of the country is from the North-West. They are all from what we call the core North. How can you have that kind of arrangement and then be absolutely insensitive to it?

“So the prescription that our constitution makes for the kind of leadership that should emerge, we have failed to achieve that with the present leadership we have in place. The constitution expects the executive to care for the welfare and security of every Nigerian. But in the present situation, they don’t seem to care.”

Obasanjo said there was no more confidence in the economy, adding that the Buhari government had wasted the gains of the past administrations.

He claimed that Buhari had “corrupted” the fight against corruption, which started during his (Obasanjo) government with the creation of two anti-corruption agencies.

– Punch