Why Obasanjo Cannot Advise President Muhammadu Buhari – Adams Oshiomole

Why Obasanjo Cannot Advise President Muhammadu Buhari – Adams Oshiomole

A former governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, ohas lashed out at former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his scathing assessment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Oshiomhole gave his thoughts shortly after meeting the President behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he said Obasanjo was not in the right position to tell Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019, Punch writes.

“I’m not sure when I see the list of the (President’s) advisers, that President Obasanjo is one of the advisers,” he said.

“I also recall with respect that the day President Obasanjo was inaugurating in some of his advisers, he did say that anybody who is his adviser can advise him, he will make his own decisions. I think that principle still stands.”

The former governor and labour leader said, as a loyal party man, he was in the Presidential Villa to reassure Buhari of his government and also for 2019 election.

He gave the president pass marks in the fight against corruption, before adding that those who understood the dynamics of governance knew that the rot of 16 years could not be cleared in two years.

“Nigeria was below ground level and from what you guys report that I read, we have always had challenges but never in terms of this scale and magnitude.

“What President Buhari inherited is difficult to describe. I have said so before that when you meet such a situation, your first task is to halt the drift. When you halt the drift, then you stabilise before you begin to go. There is no miracle about it.

“I don’t think that anybody who understands the challenge of nation building, of national economic management and so on will expect that in two years, you can fix in a sustainable manner all of the things that have been destroyed over 16 years before this party came into office.

“Yes, there are challenges; there are a couple of things we need to begin to do and re-enforce but there is no question that a lot has begun and a lot is being done.”

Oshiomhole praised the present administration for its Social Investment Programme that seeks to among other things pay the poor under the Conditional Cash Transfer component of the scheme, but admitted that paucity of data is a major challenge to the plan.