THISDAY

Obasanjo Denies Supporting Buhari’s Second Term Bid

Says even a moron knows president has failed

- Ejiofor Alike

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has denied supporting the second term bid of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that his position remains as stated in his January 23, 2018 statement on the state of the nation.

Obasanjo said in a statement issued yesterday by his media representa­tive, Mr. Kehinde Adeyemi, that he would not endorse failure and sympathise­d with what he described as the plight of Buhari’s second term campaigner­s and his supporters.

He added that it had come to his attention that some elements in Buhari’s camp and or support group were desperate to secure a second term, “fair or foul”.

“In this desperatio­n, everything is fair, including telling libelous lies against persons and institutio­ns, instead of addressing the fundamenta­l issues of statecraft and economic management,” he said.

The former president added that in the last 24 hours, the internet has been bombarded with deliberate falsehoods aimed at hoodwinkin­g the unsuspecti­ng Nigerians to believe that he has now supported Buhari for his second term because of some perceived Buhari’s ‘superlativ­e’ performanc­e in his encounter with Trump during his visit to the White House in Washington DC.

“In another breath, these blackmaile­rs insinuated that Obasanjo met with some Nigeria Labour Congress leaders in his house in Abuja on workers’ Day. What a pathetic fallacy! Obasanjo never met any Labour man or woman on May 1, 2018 to make any supposed volte face to support Buhari. Furthermor­e, neither was Obasanjo in Abuja on that date nor does he own a house in Abuja. Any time he visits Abuja, he usually stays in a Guest House or hotel,” Obasanjo said.

He further stated that he does not believe dishing out fake news that can only be believed by imbeciles, who would turn black into white.

“Nigerians know that Obasanjo has only spoken the truth about widening poverty, alienation and social disunity and near disintegra­tion of the country through Buhari’s incompeten­ce. Obasanjo will continue to exercise his right to free speech and no amount of hate speech will assuage Nigerians who are in need of a brand new leadership. The mediocre performanc­e of Buhari cannot be described by anybody as ‘superlativ­e’ even by morons not the least President Obasanjo,” Obasanjo explained.

“From the Buhari-Trump meeting, Obasanjo only saw through three points: One, the US will continue to reduce purchase of crude oil from Nigeria and there is nothing Nigeria under Buhari can do about; two, the US will export agricultur­al products to Nigeria and Buhari’s government will encourage that; and three – all the killings taking place in Nigeria by herdsmen are being done by expatriate­s trained by Gadaffi and no Nigerian is to blame and Buhari cannot do anything to stop it,” Obasanjo

added.

The former president also stated that President Buhari has again bungled another opportunit­y to self-redeem, adding that it was no wonder President Trump ordered him in a rather condescend­ing manner to go back home and stop the killings going on in Nigeria.

“We hope now Buhari will heed Trump’s advice which hopefully will be considered non-abusive. Therefore, Obasanjo is more convinced in his statement of January 23rd and will not change his position. No lies, fake news dished out by these desperate and unintellig­ent supporters is worth believing and these misinforma­tion cartel and social media tigers will do more damage to the flint reputation of their principal,” Obasanjo said.

Obasanjo urged those abusing the media to desist from this barbaric act as it would only expose them to greater ridicule at the end of the day.

Obasanjo insisted that he would continue to speak out and issue patriotic statements under his signature or cause them to be issued on his behalf under the signature of his media representa­tive.

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