I don’t know Tinubu’s position in APC - Obasanjo
He said the former Lagos governor's position in APC is not
known - Obasanjo also scored President Muhammau Buhari's administration low in
its performance Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he doesn’t
know the position Asiwaju Bola Tinubu currently holds in the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC).
The Punch reports that Obasanjo said this during a
programme titled, “The Talk,” which was aired on a YouTube Channel, “Voice of
the People.” Legit.ng gathered the former president had been asked to identify
the designations of certain political figures in the country. READ ALSO: Good
news as Army invites applicants for direct, short service commission He
identified Muhammadu Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the president and vice
president respectively, while he also identified Senator Bukola Saraki as the
Senate president. When asked to identify Tinubu, he said, “Oh, Bola? Bola is
supposed to be the leader of the APC. I don’t know the position of his
leadership as you and I are talking.” In the interview, which seemed to have
been recorded before he openly endorsed the presidential candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abibakar, the former president said he
had hoped that Atiku would succeed him as president in 2007. Obasanjo said this
was the reason he gave Atiku a lot of responsibilities but his former deputy
made some wrong decisions. “Atiku didn’t want to become even a vice president
in 1999. He was elected as a governor,” he recalled. He, however, said his plan
was to mentor Atiku to be his successor but his former deputy failed him.
Obasanjo added: “My plan was that he would be given a lot of work to do
domestically and Atiku even used to complain that I gave him too much work to
do, which was intentional because I wanted him to get to know things. “My
second term was that having prepared him for domestic issues, I would want him
to represent Nigeria for one year at the African Union, Economic Community of
West African States and the United Nations for a year so that he would be fully
prepared, but the first thing I found out was that his judgement was not right
on many occasions.” The former president, who insisted that Buhari had not done
well in government, said as a watchman, he would continue to speak up when
things were going wrong. He said there was the need for Nigerians, especially
the youth, to elect leaders that could fit into a “digital 21st century
post-modern era rather than electing analogue personalities.” On the Boko Haram
crisis, Obasanjo said after he left office in 2007, his successor (late Umaru
Yar’Adua) mismanaged the issue, which caused the group to become terrorists.
Obasanjo said had he been president at the time, Boko Haram would not have
become what it is today. He recalled that in 2011, with the permission of
former president Goodluck Jonathan, he visited the family of Boko Haram
founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and other aggrieved persons in the terrorist group and
they explained why they were carrying out attacks. The former president added,
“In 2011, I went to Maiduguri. This was after Boko Haram had attacked the UN
building in Abuja and I just wanted to know who they were and if they had
leaders and what their grievances were. “I found out that these elements of
Boko Haram had been there even while I was in government. And they, through
their intermediary, said they were there and I didn’t disturb them so they
didn’t disturb me. “They were preaching Sharia and that was what they wanted.
But, according to them, when I left government, they were being chased and
haunted and they lost a number of their adherents and they decided to fight
back and even the leader of their sect, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed and his
in-law was also killed. PAY ATTENTION “They went to court to try and get
compensation which was granted to them but the state government did not pay.”
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that mixed reactions trailed
ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo's endorsement of the presidential candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 general elections, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar. Read more: https://www.legit.ng/1199299-i-dont-tinubus-position-apc-obasanjo.html
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