President Muhammadu Buhari faces a formidable fight from three ex-presidents who believe he should retire than seek a second term in office. This is because they are not impressed with his performance so far and believe the country would be better off with a younger person in charge rather than a 75-year-old man who is approaching 80 that has a cloud hanging over his health status.
BusinessDay has learnt that the decision to stop President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election ambition was taken by some eminent Nigerians led by the trio of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Beside the trio, other prominent Nigerians and elder statesmen that attended the meetings that decided Buhari does not deserve a second term include; Theophilus Danjuma, former minister of defence, former National Security Adviser, Aliyu Gusau and former military Governor of old Kano state Col Sani Bello (rtd). Bello is also the father of Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello. Sources say different meetings were held in Abuja, Minna and Abeokuta.
The first of the series of meeting which held on May 1, 2017, on Babangida’s Hilltop Mansion, Minna, was to review the state of the nation and President Buhari’s health.
Besides this meeting, “a couple of other meetings took place in Minna, Abuja and Ota”, a source told BusinesDay in Abuja. Most of the recent meetings were centred on the plank of the allegations contained in the damning special press statement in which Obasanjo asked the president not to contest the 2019 election on the grounds of poor economic management, poverty ravaging the country, nepotism and cloud of insecurity hanging on the country caused mainly by the Boko Haram insurgents and killer-herdsmen.
In reviewing the state of the nation, the source said, the former leaders did checks on the economy, security, political appointees, and overall performance of the government and concluded that the Buhari government has performed woefully on all the major indices.
‘It is not true to claim that Obansajo alone reviewed the performance of Buhari’s regime and passed the damning verdict contained in the special press statement entitled ‘The way out: A clarion call for coalition for Nigeria movement’, source close to the meeting said. ‘That Obasanjo is the arrow-head and the person speaking or writing on behalf of the ex-leaders is not in doubt. He has demonstrated this many times’, another source said.
Obasanjo has been given the role of spokesman because he has both the material and human capital resources to articulate and air the views of the elder statesmen.
To put their views of the ex-presidents together, Obasanjo held consultations with ‘a couple of persons and groups’ when he came to Abuja for his convocation at the National Open University. The meetings discussed the state of the nation, particularly insecurity, poverty, poor economic management, and crass nepotism, which were the fulcrum of the ex-president’s special press statement.
With the conclusion that Buhari does not deserve a second term, the ex-leaders and prominent person are now shopping for a credible candidate they can trust and who has the capacity to deliver good governance to replace Buhari in 2019.
The former leaders were said to be irked that while the country is suffering from general insecurity, pervasive economic hardship, among other vices, Buhari has no clue as to how to address the crises and has consistently remained aloof while the ship of the Nigerian state totters.
They are more enraged about the wanton killings across the country caused by Boko-Haram and killer herdsmen.
“In the past few months also, I have taken time to reflect on a number of issues plaguing the country. I get frightened by their dimensions. I get worried by their colourations. I get perplexed by their gory themes. From Southern Kaduna to Taraba state, from Benue state to Rivers, from Edo state to Zamfara, it has been a theatre of blood with cake of crimson. In Dansadau in Zamfara state recently, North-West of Nigeria, over 200 souls were wasted for no justifiable reason,” Ibrahim Babangida, said in a press statement released on Sunday.
“The pogrom in Benue state has left me wondering if truly this is the same country some of us fought to keep together. I am alarmed by the amount of blood-letting across the land. Nigeria is now being described as a land where blood flows like river, where tears have refused to dry up. Almost on a daily basis, we are both mourning and grieving, and often times left helpless by the sophistication of crimes. The Boko Haram challenge has remained unabated even though there has been commendable effort by government to maximally downgrade them. I will professionally advise that the battle be taken to the inner fortress of Sambisa Forest rather than responding to the insurgents’ ambushes from time to time.”
With the ex-presidents, who were once friends of Buhari now lined up against him, political analysts believe the president has a difficult task but not am impossible one ahead if he still insists on running for a second term in office.
John Osadolor, Abuja
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