January 3,2023

The Presidency on Monday slammed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for describing the seven years of President Muhammadu Buhari in office as horrible and hell on earth for Nigerians.

It described Obasanjo’s government as corrupt, adding that the former leader was morally bankrupt

The Presidency, which listed Obasanjo’s sins in office, also accused him of lying to the South-East to garner votes during his tenure between 1999 and 2007.

The elder statesman stirred the hornet’s nest on Sunday with his criticism of the Buhari regime, noting that the nation was currently faced with pervasive and mind-numbing insecurity, rudderless leadership, mismanagement of diversity and pervasive corruption and bad economic policies, which he said had resulted in extremes of poverty and massive unemployment and galloping inflation

Obasanjo’s endorsement of the Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi, in a lengthy New Year message also provoked the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and African Action Alliance, which dismissed his support for Obi as of little political value.

But responding to the blistering attacks on Buhari in a statement on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), Garba Shehu said the Owu chief “won’t stop being jealous of anyone who beats him to a new record in the nation’s development process,’’ noting that Buhari is ahead of Obasanjo in all fields of national development

This, he said, is a cardinal sin to the ex-president.

In the statement titled, ‘Morally squalid Obasanjo attacks leaders out of frustration,’ Shehu said, “Former President Obasanjo is so well known to all that no one needs to describe who he is. But four things we will like to say: One is that he will not stop attacking President Muhammadu Buhari because the former President won’t stop being jealous of anyone who beats him to a new record in the nation’s development process.

“President Buhari is ahead of Chief Obasanjo in all fields of national development and to do that is a cardinal sin to Obasanjo, whose hallucinations tell him that he is the best ever to lead Nigeria and there will never be another one better than him

President Buhari just completed the world-class edifice that is the Second Niger Bridge after three decades of failed promises. It is now awaiting commissioning. Obasanjo laid the sod for the bridge in his first term as elected President and work never started.

“When he sought re-election for his second term in office, he returned to the site to turn the sod for the bridge the second time. When the Obi of Onitsha, forthright and scholarly, reminded him that he had done this in the past, Obasanjo told the foremost South-East traditional ruler that he was a liar, in the full presence of the chiefs and oracles in his palace.’’

The presidential aide said the former President failed to build the Second Niger Bridge despite turning the sod twice.

“Obasanjo lied to the South-East to get their votes. President Buhari didn’t get their votes but built the bridge because he believed it is the right thing to do,’’ Garba declared.

The SSA further bragged that his principal had bagged several awards and encomiums for not attempting to go beyond the maximum two terms in office as stipulated by the Constitution.

He said, “President Buhari has been stating and restating that he will supervise a better election than the one that brought him to office and to leave as and when due. Having tried tenure elongation and failed, Obasanjo’s fictitious mind must be telling him that he is the one under attack.

“But he is not on President Buhari’s radar because experience has shown, especially lately in West Africa where there have been at least three successful coups and many other failed attempts, that third term or tenure elongation is a recipe for political instability.

“Furthermore, the totality of African leaders appointed President Buhari the Anti-Corruption Champion of the continent. You can’t be an anti-corruption champion if ‘you meddled and bent the rules,’ carrying the putrid responsibility of what happened to national assets in the name of privatisation as documented by the Nigerian Senate in 2011.’’

Under the Obasanjo administration, the Presidency alleged that the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria and Delta Steel were undervalued and sold well below their market prices.

“As an insight, the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, which was set up with $3.2bn, was sold to a Russian firm, Russal, for a paltry $130m. Delta Steel, which was set up in 2005, at a cost of $1.5bn, was sold to Global Infrastructure for just $30m. ALSCON got back $120m for the dredging of the Imo River, which was never carried out,’’ the statement added.

Touting Buhari’s profile as ‘the Champion of Democracy’ not only in Nigeria but across the African continent, the Presidency castigated Obasanjo for allegedly destabilising internal democracy “by orchestrating impeachment after impeachment of governors who were not compliant with his highly imperial administration.’’

It stated, “As we said sometime back, Mr Obasanjo’s tenure, 1999-2007, represented the dark days of Nigeria’s democracy due to a slew of assaults on the constitution.

“The former president deployed federal machinery to remove governors Joshua Dariye, Rashidi Ladoja, Peter Obi, Chris Ngige and Ayo Fayose from office. They were the then governors of Plateau, Oyo, Anambra, Anambra and Ekiti states, respectively, unjustly removed using the police and secret service under his control.

“Under him, a five-man legislature met at 6 am and ‘impeached’ Governor Dariye in Plateau; 18 members out of 32 removed Governor Ladoja of Oyo from office; in Anambra, APGA’s Governor Obi was equally impeached at 5:00 a.m. by members who did not meet the two-thirds required by the constitution.

“Lawmaking powers of the Rivers State legislature were transferred to the federal parliament to punish Governor Amaechi for shifting his political alliance.

“Moreover, he damned the Supreme Court and unlawfully held back Lagos State revenues due from federal sources on account of his pettiness against Governor Bola Tinubu.

“On the other hand, in Washington a few weeks ago, the US President Joe Biden at a meeting with African Heads of States and Government, described President Buhari as a champion of democracy and role model for the leaders of African states. Clearly, Obasanjo has become even more jealous by adopting a vengeful attitude.’’

Also unsparing in his attacks on the ex-president for endorsing the LP presidential candidate, the Spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala accused him of seeking ‘a third term’ by proxy.

In a statement on Monday, Bwala said, “Nigerians would decide, and this they would do, not on the basis of a letter by a man seeking a third term by proxy, but by their own assessment of who amongst the candidates presents the case they believe warrant their votes.’’

Joining the attacks on the Octogenarian, the Adviser, Media, Communications and Public Affairs of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, claimed the ex-president has no moral compass to lecture any citizen on leadership “with his notorious antecedents in Nigeria’s political history.’’

He said Obasanjo might be plotting for an interim government, adding that the ex-president was a hypocrite