2019: I’ll Never Endorse Buhari, He Has Failed, Obasanjo Insists

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo took yet another swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday over the latter’s performance since assuming office.

Obasanjo insisted that he would never support President Buhari’s re-election plan.

He said supporting the president’s second term bid would be an endorsement for failure.

He described recent rumours suggesting that he was now in support of Buhari’s re-election as misleading and the handiwork of mischief makers.

In a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said the purveyors of the fake news were unintelligent supporters who were desperate to secure a second term for the president with lies.

While sympathising with those campaigning for a second term for the president, Obasanjo said they had been fooled by the perceived superlative performance of Buhari when he met with the President of the United States, Donald Trump.

The former president, who qualified Buhari’s performance during the meeting as mediocre, said not even a moron should see the outing as superlative.

According to Obasanjo, whatever the meeting was worth, Buhari only bungled an opportunity for self-redemption by maintaining his blame game, and claiming that late Gadhafi’s men were the people behind the killings in the country.

Part of the statement reads: “It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that some elements in the Muhammadu Buhari camp and or support group are desperate to secure a second term, fair or foul.

“In this desperation, everything is fair, including telling libellous lies against persons and institutions, instead of addressing the fundamental issues of statecraft and economic management.

“In the last 24 hours, the internet has been bombarded with deliberate falsehoods aimed at hoodwinking the unsuspecting Nigerians to believe that Obasanjo has now supported Buhari for his second term because of some perceived Buhari’s ‘superlative’ performance in his encounter with Trump during his visit to the White House in Washington, DC.

“In another breath, these blackmailers insinuated that Chief Obasanjo met with some Nigeria Labour Congress leaders in his house in Abuja on Workers’ Day. What a pathetic fallacy!

“Chief Obasanjo never met any labour man or woman on May 1, 2018 to make any supposed volte-face to support Buhari.

“Furthermore, neither was Chief Obasanjo in Abuja on that date nor does he own a house in Abuja. Any time he visits Abuja, he usually stays in a guest house or hotel.

“For the record, Obasanjo has not and cannot endorse failure. His position remains as stated in his January 23rd, 2018, statement on the state of the nation.

“Chief Obasanjo sympathises with the plight of those campaigners and supporters of Buhari.

“He doesn’t believe dishing out fake news that can only be believed by imbeciles will turn black into white.

“The mediocre performance of Buhari cannot be described by anybody as ‘superlative’ even by morons, not the least President Obasanjo.

“From the Buhari/Trump meeting, Chief Obasanjo only saw through three points: one, the US will continue to reduce purchase of crude oil from Nigeria and there is nothing Nigeria under Buhari can do about; two, the US will export agricultural products to Nigeria and Buhari’s government will encourage that, and three – all the killings taking place in Nigeria by herdsmen are being done by expatriates trained by Gadhafi and no Nigerian is to blame, and Buhari cannot do anything to stop it.

“For whatever the meeting was worth, President Buhari again bungled another opportunity to self-redeem.

“No wonder President Trump ordered him in a rather condescending manner to go back home and stop the killings going on in Nigeria!

“We hope now Buhari will heed Trump’s advice which hopefully will be considered non-abusive.”

While maintaining his earlier position on Buhari, Obasanjo said no fake news would stop him from his right to free speech.

“Nigerians know that Chief Obasanjo has only spoken the truth about widening poverty, alienation, and social disunity and near disintegration of the country through Buhari’s incompetence.

“Obasanjo will continue to exercise his right to free speech and no amount of hate speech will assuage Nigerians who are in need of a brand new leadership.

“Therefore, Chief Obasanjo is more convinced in his statement of January 23rd and will not change his position.

“No lies, fake news dished out by these desperate and unintelligent supporters are worth believing and this misinformation cartel and social media tigers will do more damage to the flint reputation of their principal.

“Chief Obasanjo understands that the internet has good and bad uses. Those abusing the media should desist from this barbaric act as it will only expose them to greater ridicule at the end of the day.

“Obasanjo will continue to speak out. He will continue to issue patriotic statements under his signature or cause them to be issued on his behalf under the signature of his media representative, Mr. Kehinde Adeyemi.”