President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to Olusegun Obasanjo’s
endorsement of presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
Obasanjo had in a meeting held with Atiku and some PDP leaders endorsed his presidential ambition.
He declared that Atiku will defeat the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.
According to him, he believes that Atiku has ‘re-discovered and
re-positioned himself’ and is now good enough to enjoy his support in
the next election.
Obasanjo said,
“Let me start by congratulating President-to-be, Atiku Abubakar, for
his success at the recent PDP Primary and I took note of his gracious
remarks in his acceptance speech that it all started here.”
However, Buhari in a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on
Thursday described the meeting as a ‘well rehearsed theatre’, adding
that both leaders will fail in 2019.
Read the statement below: “The Presidency has received the news of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s predictable U-turn and somersault
on the endorsement of the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, at a meeting
Thursday, and to say that we are the least surprised by the
well-rehearsed theatre.
“They will lose together. Listening to the prepared statement of the
former President after the meeting showed the usual ego trip and “I know
it all” character of Chief Obasanjo.
“In the first place, we dare to say that a pompous statement from the
former President advising Nigerians on a vote against President Buhari
is the best recommendation that can come at this time.
“It also betrayed a lack of understanding of today’s politics which
is about good governance.The country voted for change in 2015 and a
leader that ensures good governance which only President Buhari and the
APC can provide.Bent on these laudable goals, we will not allow
ourselves to be distracted.
“We are busy on various national issues including the restructuring
and the diversification of the economy, fighting corruption, terrorism
and other threats to national security; increasing the availability of
electric power, improving education, health, and providing long-delayed
infrastructure – roads, rail, airports and so forth.
“Many governments have come and gone, but they did not care about some of these projects.
We were talking about these things for sixteen years under the PDP and nothing was done.
President Buhari is proud of his record because his achievements are
verifiable, while that of the PDP is manifested by the devastating
social and economic impact of large scale corruption during their
governance.
“The President will not relent in the war against corruption because
the ordinary people are the ultimate victims if we surrender to
corruption and let its perpetrators go unpunished.
“Abandoning the war against corruption is not an option. President
Buhari is in this battle against graft because he cannot allow a few,
rapacious, and selfish class of the elite to divert the resources meant
for the well-being of the ordinary people to their private pockets.
Nigerians trust President Buhari in this effort because they are
convinced he is not in government for personal financial benefits, or
for an ego trip.
“It is just eleven years ago that the former President and Vice
President in their ugly fight for power accused each other of
corruption. Nigerians are yet to forget all that.”