Upright message from corrupt dispatcher By Amiru Halilu

I must first of all state categorically that I am not a Buhari apologist, and this is not an indirect endorsement or expression of support for his candidature.
Rather it is a crucial and necessary summation provoked by the sanctimonious holier-than-thou letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Nowadays, the author (Obasanjo) of the malfeasance and ruthless indifference that enchained this innocent nation called Nigeria and its remarkable people, sees himself like a kind of secular Pope.
His self-righteousness, his bilious holier-than-thou attitude not only amazes me but saddened me quite a bit too.
In a serious and healthy nation, the likes of Obasanjo would have been rot in jail by now.
I must once again concede that Buhari has performed far below expectation, and I can hardly vote for him again.
But being the genesis of the brunt Nigerians are bearing today, Obasanjo should be the last if not the least human being to opt for greener pastures for anyone else in this country.
The mood swings and short-term memory loss he thinks Nigerians are suffering from has been cured.
Those who participated in destroying Nigeria would not partake in rebuilding it because destiny doesn’t believe in failure.
Obasanjo blamed Buhari for turning a blind eye to corruption within his government; nepotism, insecurity, appointing incompetent people into his government, poor management of the economy, being politically inept and so on.
This is one of the most barefaced and cynicism of Obasanjo trickery in living memory.
I wonder what political aptitude Obasanjo demonstrated when he was in power.
Isn’t the same Obasanjo that introduced do-or-die politics in this country? Can Obasanjo claim to be a better democrat than the former military ruler, General Sani Abacha? Isn’t under him that high profile political killing was so alarming? Up till now, no one in particular can explain the mysterious killings of Bola Ige, Harry Marshall, Funsho Williams, Sa’adatu Rimi, Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam, etc.
On December 9, 2005, Obasanjo perpetrated a crime against democracy in Bayelsa state; a crime which some referred to as Aso Rock teleguided military coup.
After governor Alamieyeseigha was impeached by five law makers and a combination of army and mobile police on the say so of Obasanjo, he instructed them to bring him to Aso Rock before taking him to detention camp.
No sooner than he arrived than Obasanjo asked him to “lie down flat.
” He said to him, “this is power, and governor so and so in the South south are bigger thieves than you.
” In Obasanjo’s presidential palace, having a remote link with the former vice president Atiku Abubakar was a great sin; in fact, weightier than looting public funds, and that was the sin of former Bayelsa state governor.
A week after, former Oyo state governor, Abdul Rashid Ladoja was removed by gangsters for the same sin.
Obasanjo talked about nepotism and incompetent appointments.
However, it’s on record that he appointed late Babalola Borishade, first as education minister.
When he collapsed thesector, then he was redeployed to aviation ministry where his skilllessness and incompetency resulted to the loss of hundreds of lives in a series of plane crashes within a year.
Obasanjo didn’t sack him but redeployed him to ministry of culture and tourism after he succumbed to pressure from all quarters.
Late Borishade and Bode George were both accused of all manner of corruption but Obasanjo turned a deaf ear to it.
Economically, Obasanjo’s self-profi ciency reached greater heights.
He talks as if he’s one of the greatest thinkers in the history of economics.
Perhaps he talks like he is next to Adam Smith.
Notwithstanding former President Sani Abacha managed to keep the exchange rate at approximately N80 to one dollar for good four years.
But Obasanjo’s lack of economic know how cast a blight to Naira as it dropped to almost 140 Naira to a dollar before he left.
When Obasanjo came to power, the price of fuel (petrol) was N20, he increased it to N75 between 1999 to 2007.
A bag of rice was N2,500 but it rose to about N7,000.
Maize sold for slightly more than N1,000, it became more than N5,000.
A bag of garri sold for N800 rose to more than N6,000.
Obasanjo readily comes to mind whenever corruption is mentioned.
In fact, corruption was the centerpiece of his administration.
His third term bid and his presidential library speak volume; business mogul Aliko Dangote got a waver in return of the 211 million Naira he donated to the presidential library.
It’s insinuated that Obasanjo once hike a petrol pump price just to reciprocate the generosity of Otunba Mike Adenuga of Conoil and Femi Otedola of Zenon who equally donated to presidential library.
The only thing that wasn’t done by Obasanjo was laying a pipe from his presidential palace to National Assembly through which he will be pumping money for them to accept his evil plan to stay in power beyond his term limits.
Base on his antecedent, one can say without equivocation that Obasanjo write the letter out of intellectual perversity and willful desire to pursue his ulterior motive Rather than any sense of altruism.
Halilu writes from Kaduna

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