Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo today said any leader who cannot perform in office by providing leadership should get out of office.
Obasanjo, who spoke at the Lagos State University, LASU, Convocation lecture in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria said such a leader should not think of seeking re-election but to get out of office.
The former President, though, did not mention the name of President Muhammadu Buhari in his speech, but his words betrayed him and pointed to the president. Obasanjo spoke on the “Role of tertiary education in promoting social cohesion and peace: Opportunities and Challenges for Nigeria.” He said four needs were basic features anyone leading a country must be ready to bring to fore because they worked together.
According to him, “We need those four things. If for any reason, you, as a leader in any walks of life, you cannot give leadership, maintain good governance; you cannot understand what development is and maintain and cherish values within our cultures, you must ship out no matter any level of leader you are. If we continue with business as usual, our chances of development within the committee of nations will be very slim. We have to do things differently in Nigeria for us to get things right. If we do this, we will be reckoned with globally. But if we fail, the world will leave us behind. As a leader, you must be ready to Give, or get others to Give (delegate). And if you cannot do either of the two, you must Get out. If we don’t have them, we are deceiving ourselves. God has given Nigeria what it needs. But we will get there if we apply the three Gs,” he stated.
The former president stated that though the country had diversified ethic groups, the problem the nation had with diversity was lack of management which brought nepotism, favouritism and others into the polity, adding that diversity in the country’s ethnicity must not hinder equal treatment for all since everyone is citizens of the country.
In a statement released by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, the former president said replied President Buhari and revealed that he is ready for a probe. According to the former president, the power project under his administration has been documented in his book, My Watch, and that if President Buhari cannot read it, he should give the book to any of his aides to read and then summarise in a language he would understand….lol.
Read the statement below
‘It has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information and based on ignorance, suggested that $16 billion was wasted on power projects by “a former President”. We believe that the President was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own predecessor but one’.
Obasanjo argued that while it is doubtful that a President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be pointed out that records from the National Assembly had exculpated him (Obasanjo) of any wrong-doing concerning the power sector and has proved the allegations as false.
“For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, My Watch in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result,” .
The former president said President Buhari should read chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of his book, ”My Watch” for his insights and perspectives on the power sector during his time and that if the president cannot read, he should give the books to his aides to read and then summarise to a language he would understand.
“If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will easily understand,” Obasanjo said
