*OBJ is a Snake-oil Salesman- TDF
*Statement Disgracefully Hypocritical – Lagos APC
“It is not unusual for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to use every opportunity to cast aspersions on other Nigerian Presidents in a bid to portray his administration as the best the country ever had and himself as the most competent.
“Which is why we were not surprised that in his new book, “Nigeria: Past and Future”, he tagged President Bola Tinubu as second only to former President Muhammadu Buhari in inefficiency. This is clearly in his character.
By Olawale Lamina
The duo of The Democratic Front, TDF, and Tinubu Media Support Group ,TMSG, have criticized former President Olusegun Obasanjo for accusing President Bola Tinubu administration as inefficient, describing the former’s vitro as mischievous, baseless and hollow.
Former president Obasanjo at the launch of his second book recently, characterized the Tinubu administration as second only to that of former President Muhammadu Buhari in inefficiency.
Obasanjo’s book titled, “Nigeria: Past and Future, one of two publications he launched in March to mark his 88th birthday. The second book is titled Lest We Forget: Slavery, Slave Trade, Emancipation and Reparation.
In the first chapter, From the Beginning Till Now: The Missing Key, Obasanjo reviewed Nigeria’s leaders since independence and concluded that Buhari’s administration was the “worst civil administration regime” in the nation’s history.
But the former leader drew the ire of the groups loyal to the current administration when he wrote, “Only Bola Tinubu’s administration seems to be competing with Buhari’s for now.”
On its part, TMSG had wondered that, former president, despite his dismal record in office would accuse any other president, former or current, of performing worse than his own administration.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Emeka Nwankpa and the Secretary, Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG argued that the former President misused several opportunities to turn around Nigeria’s fortunes at a critical time of multiple oil booms.
The group said: “It is not unusual for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to use every opportunity to cast aspersions on other Nigerian Presidents in a bid to portray his administration as the best the country ever had and himself as the most competent.
“Which is why we were not surprised that in his new book, “Nigeria: Past and Future”, he tagged President Bola Tinubu as second only to former President Muhammadu Buhari in inefficiency. This is clearly in his character.
“And in casting aspersions at all Presidents who assumed office after him, former President Obasanjo was, as usual, being himself, an individual who sees everything good about himself, a messiah of sorts even when many Nigerians know that he squandered the goodwill that followed him into office after years of military rule.
“Yes, the former President secured debt forgiveness for Nigeria by paying $18 billion, but he also left billions of naira in unpaid pension debt and entitlements of several Nigerians who were left jobless after his poorly managed privatisation of hundreds of Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs).
“So how many of those companies that were later found to have been sold at a pittance are still operating? Also, former President Obasanjo takes delight in saying that he left an Excess Crude Account (ECA) of $25 billion for his predecessor, which is a tacit acknowledgement of the oil boom while he was President, but it was also a period that Nigeria could not boast of a modern rail network”, the statement said.
The group also wondered why a former president who credited himself as the best among the country’s leaders left a legacy of poor infrastructure and waste despite the multiple oil booms of the period.
“If the Obasanjo era was a period of remarkable efficiency, former President Buhari and his successor, both of whom he claimed were inefficient, would not have been executing rail projects as well as highways and other critical infrastructure at a time of lower crude prices.
“That was also the time the nation’s four refineries were crippled and millions of dollars spent on questionable Turn Around Maintenance (TAMs), aside from the over 16 billion dollars believed to have been spent on power projects that achieved nothing but left Nigerians in worse darkness.
“Yet former President Obasanjo always accuses the country’s successive leadership as inefficient and poor managers of the economy.
“No Nigerian can easily forget the legacy of corruption he introduced into the National Assembly as the first civilian President in the Fourth Republic, as well as carrying the burden of the worst national election in Nigeria’s history in 2027 which he presided over and for which there is still no final result, eighteen years after.
“We think he needs to drop his messianic complex and accept, for once, that he cannot always absolve himself of blame whenever he talks of Nigeria’s political leadership especially now that he wants everyone to know that he is close to his ‘departure lounge”
“It is interesting that in his latest book, he admitted that he was not perfect during his time in office, but he is also known to have never accepted his flaws, from the 2007 election to his administration’s handling of the privatisation exercise.
“The only area he is known to have expressed regret was his choice of Atiku Abubakar as Vice President, ” the statement noted. The group urged the former president to assume the role of an elder statesman that he is and desist from casting aspersions on the country’s leaders after falling out with them.
Obasanjo: a Snake-oil Salesman- TDF
Similarly, in a statement titled, Obasanjo: a snake-oil salesman by Tinubu Democratic Front, TDF, the group dismissed Obasanjo’s labelling of Tinubu’s administration as inefficient, stating further that Obasanjo was in no position label any administration as inefficient based on his performance in office.
The statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad, and the Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, TDF noted that could only be regarded as his typical characteristic.
TDF like it’s counterpart said: “Obasanjo’s accusation would have been denounced as his usual tirade of a relevance-seeking political gaslighter; but because the accusation illuminated the failures of a former President of Nigeria, whose personal negligence of duty and inefficiency cost the nation $18 billion, as payment to offset a $30 billion loan from the Paris Club in 2006.
”This was at a time the entire nation was in darkness due to the inability to generate electricity, while the educational sector was also in a coma on account of lack of living wage for teachers and lecturers, leading to endless strike actions that disrupted university programs and the national academic calendar, etc.
”We are compelled by obligation to provide clarity on who, between President Tinubu and former President Obasanjo, presided over the most economically reckless and inefficient government in Nigeria.
”Unlike President Tinubu who has visited 17 countries in the last two years and secured a major livestock sector investment from Brazil, as well as attracted a total of $50.8 billion investment commitments from India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate, and France, former President Obasanjo gallivanted across 97 countries without any notable foreign investment, or practical evidence of improved trade balance between Nigeria and the countries he visited. A monumental waste of public funds.
”We sadly remember Obasanjo’s inability to initiate private investments in Nigeria’s petroleum refining sub-sector for 8 years, despite failed attempts to sell state-owned refineries as scraps to vested interests. This is a feat President Tinubu surpassed in less than 7 months in office, by midwifing Dangote Refinery, a few years after the Buhari administration initiated the enabling environment for the establishment of Dangote and other private modular refineries in Nigeria.
”TDF is therefore not under any illusion that the former president is either exhibiting the symptoms of selective amnesia at old age, or resorting to the antics of a snake-oil salesman, by deceitfully manipulating public opinion to deflect accountability, and excuse his shortcomings for laying the foundation for the executive inefficiency that led to monumental waste of scarce national resources in Nigeria between 1999 and 2007.”
The group seized the occasion to highlight some of the instances in Obasanjo years that showcased the inefficiency of that administration.
”The annals of our national history will never forget that Obasanjo’s inefficiency as the President cost the nation billions of dollars in the power sector, and the waste of another $550 million in satellite projects known as Nigeriasat 1 and Nigeriasat 2, which have since disappeared from the orbit.
”Similarly, his anchorage of executive disrespect for democratic norms and constitutional ethics, which resulted in the infamous kidnapping of an elected State Governor, and the illegitimate impeachment of other State Governors, has also left an enduring infamy in Nigeria’s democratic history.
”In addition, the former President’s disregard for due process created legal entanglements and contractual liabilities that stalled the Mambila Power Project contract award, and denied Nigeria the opportunity to add 3,500 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.”
The group therefore appealed to Obasanjo, whom it noted was surrounded by heavy burden of failure, to desist from his usual diatribe and act as a statesman.
It also called on the Octogenarian statesman to desist from making derogatory statements, as it is unbecoming of a former President.
In a separate reaction, the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed the comment of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which allegedly dubbed President Bola Tinubu as “competing with Buhari in incompetence”.
The party stated that the former leader’s statement is “not only laughable but disgracefully hypocritical.”
This was disclosed in a press statement by the party chapter’s spokesperson, Seye Oladejo, on Tuesday.
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