Buhari has done his best –Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that
President Muhammadu Buhari has not disappointed
him since he assumed office On May 29, 2015.
While reflecting on the Buhari administration since
2015, Obasanjo said that the president had done his
best to move the country forward.
“Whatever anybody says, President Buhari has not
disappointed me from what I know of him,” Obasanjo
stated in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) at his hilltop residence in Abeokuta.
He said the president had delivered on his core areas
of strength and ability, particularly in the
anticorruption crusade and the war against
insurgency.
“In my book, I have said that Buhari is not strong on
the economy and I did not write this to run him down.
“I also used to think that he is not strong in the area of
foreign affairs, but I have realised that he has
improved very well. “He has actually done his best in
the areas where we know him to be strong,” he said.
The former president urged Nigerians not to relent in
their support for Buhari and not to give up on Nigeria.
“Whatever you might see as bad in Nigeria, other
societies have gone through the same at some period
in their history.
“It is not for us to begin to condemn, but to begin to
join hands together and consider how we can make
the best out of our present. “Our present situation is a
passing phase and we need to be resilient to ensure
that we are not consumed by it.
“I will be the first to admit that we have not been
where we should have been, but note that we have
also been far from where we could have been because
it could have been worse.
“It is the height of ingratitude for people to say Nigeria
has not achieved anything or much as a nation.
The generation before mine fought for Nigeria’s
independence, that is great. “My own generation,
which is the next, fought to sustain the unity of
Nigeria.
Since 1999, Nigeria had enjoyed 18 years of unbroken
democracy. We witnessed in 2007 a transition of
power from one individual to another in the same
party.
“We witnessed in 2015 a transition of power from an
individual in the ruling party to another individual in
the opposition party.
All these should not be taken for granted,” he said. In
a veiled reference to the pro-Biafran agitators –
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for
the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra
(MASSOB) – and Niger Delta militants – Obasanjo said
all the gro+ups want is more of the national cake.
His words: “We Nigerians need ourselves and if anyone
thinks he does not need another person, good luck to
him. What I see in all those groups trying to break
away is that they want more of the national cake.
“The fact that you want more of the cake means that it
is good and you like it, else you will not be asking for
more of it.
“I do understand the agitations of the youth in that the
increased facilities that now exist as against our own
time have not translated to adequate opportunities for
them.
“But I think that rather than engage in violence, they
should think of how to build on the sacrifices of the
generations before them,” he said. Obasanjo also
decried the call for national conferences or assemblies
to negotiate the continued unity of Nigeria.
The former president, who described such conferences
as distractions, said he did not bother to read the
report of the last one organised by former President
Goodluck Jonathan. The elder statesman, who would
turn 80 on March 5, said he had no regrets at such an
age.
He said that his hope that Nigeria would still be a great
nation was still intact. Meanwhile, Obasanjo yesterday
said God has been too partial to him by bestowing
unwarranted favour on him.
Obasanjo, who wondered why God has been so
merciful to him, declared that he had gotten much
more than he deserved in the journey of life.
He spoke at the thanksgiving service held at the
Treasure House of God, Abeokuta, which was
organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
, Ogun State chapter to commemorate his 80th
birthday.
The one-time head of state said despite the fact that
he was imprisoned on a trumped up charge of coup
plotting by the late General Sanni Abacha, he came
out alive and later became a president in 1999.
Obasanjo explained that given his background as a
poor Ibogun village boy, with stark illiterate parents, he
never dreamt his name would be heard in the nearest
hamlet, not to talk of Nigeria and the world over.
He said he would always be grateful to God for
showing overwhelming grace on him. His words: “God
has been partial to me by showing me so much favour
that I do not deserve.
“If you don’t know anything about me at all, go to the
village where I was born. I was born by parents that
were illiterates.
There was no road to the village then. One could not
boast of even being known in the next village. “God
has done so much for me more than I deserve.
I thank God for this.” According to him, he consulted
with late South African President Nelson Mandela and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu when pressure was being
mounted on him to contest as Nigeria’s president in
1999.
“When I came out from prison for the offence I didn’t
commit and people started putting pressure on me to
be Nigeria’s President, I was confused but in that
confusion I seek advice not from here.
I went first to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
Mandela said ‘Olu (Olusegun) whatever your instinct
tells you, follow it.’
“Tutu, after listening to me, said: ‘are you tired of
serving God and your people?’ He now said my advice
to you is that go and do what your people asked you
to do.
When I now came back, one day I was reading the
book of Esther and I saw where Mordecai said you are
here for your people and I started changing my mind
from there,” he said.
Obasanjo, who was decorated by CAN as the Asiwaju
Onigbagbo of Christians in Ogun State, expressed
gratitude to the organisers of the programme.
Earlier in his sermon, the Deputy National Vice
President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria
(PFN), Bishop Francis Wale Oke, described Obasanjo
as man of destiny.


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