Two months after he came down hard on President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that he is considering writing another letter.
The
elder statesman said this while speaking at the 14th annual lecture of
Women in Management, Business and Public Service in Lagos on Thursday.
In
the letter he wrote in January, Obasanjo asked Buhari to retire from
active public service. He told the president to forget about contesting
in 2019, saying doing so would amount to overstretching the tolerance of
Nigerians.
But on Thursday, the ex-president said the new letter might not be as tough as that of January.
He
also said the Coalition for Nigeria Movement which he introduced in the
strongly-worded letter now has three million registered voters.
He said if Nigerians register for the elections in good time, they would benefit from the ideals of CNM and similar movements.
Obasanjo
said at the “right time”, he would withdraw from CNM as long as the
movement plans to groom capable hands for political positions.
The
former president charged women on the need to be more visible in the
political landscape and they have to “do enough for themselves”.
“You should all say enough is enough. Women, as the majority, must be reckoned with in the overriding interest of the general good of our people.
“The society must correct the impression that it is only women who have nothing to do or have been failing other endeavours that go into politics.
“A way to do this is to ensure that successful women, who occupy top cadres in the society, should join politics so as to give stiffer competition to the male counterpart. ‘We must discriminate positively in favour of women, and women themselves must know how to use other women for their good in politics.
“The reason for the positive discrimination is not because women are inferior, but while they have what it takes to succeed in politics, the men folk have continued to hold them back. And so, the positive discrimination will solve such problem.”
“If
only womanhood was enough, Mrs Clinton would have made it to the White
House but she had a man (Donald Trump) who did what he could do to get
to power,” he said.“I don’t want or expect women to climb palm
trees to harvest bunch of palm fruits. If anybody says he wants to see
my mother climb palm trees, I will take a second look at that person.“But women must do what it takes to succeed in Nigerian political space.
“To
you women, do not allow any body to build your world for you. Build
your world for yourself. Yes, women need encouragement but they must do
enough for themselves.”
In her remarks, the Executive Council Chairperson of WIMBIZ, Mrs
Olubunmi Talabi, said that the government must implement the affirmative
action on women inclusion in nation-building