Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says President Buhari has done his best to proffer solutions to the security challenges confronting the nation, adding that Nigerians should not expect more from the Katsina-born retired major general.
Obasanjo made this known this week when leaders of socio-cultural organisations met in Abuja at a retreat on inclusive security organised by the Global Peace Foundation in collaboration with Vision Africa.
The elder statesmen including Obasanjo; Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, amongst others, lamented the incessant kidnappings, killings in the country, calling for collective actions to halt the worsening insecurity ubiquitous in the country.
Speaking at the event, Obasanjo said Nigerians should stop wasting time asking for the 78-year-old President to proffer more security solutions but should focus on the post-Buhari era.
The 84-year-old ex-President said, “The truth is this: President Buhari has done his best; that is what he can do if you expect anything than what he is doing, you are kicking a dead horse and there is no need. We must not fold our hands…How do we prepare for the post-Buhari era? Buhari has done his best. My prayer is that God will spare his life to see his term through but what do we have after Buhari? What should we do to make the post-Buhari era better than what we have now? That is our responsibility. It concerns all of us.”
Obasanjo was Nigeria’s military head of state between February 1976 and September 1979 and the country’s democratically elected President from May 1999 to May 2007 while Buhari was also Nigeria’s head of state between December 1983 and August 1985 before his return as civilian President in May 2015.
Obasanjo had been one of the fiercest critics of Buhari until recently when he appeared to have softened pedals. In February 2021, the strongman of Hilltop told Buhari to wake up and fight banditry in his backyard – in the North-West.
Many Nigerians are disappointed in the regime of Buhari, who rode to power on the heels of combating the security challenges plaguing the country in 2015 but the situation seems to have been aggravated in the last six years.