The Presidency, on Monday night, made it clear that President
Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would not join issues with former
President Olusegun Obasanjo over his latest comments.
Obasanjo while addressing a group of youths who visited him at his
country home in Abeokuta, described the Buhari administration as a
failure.
He also asked the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government to stop complaining about the challenges it met on the ground.
“What we have now is failure. Never you reinforce failure, let
failure be failure… Those of you who are in business, your business
could have been better today if we have a competent and effective and
performing government,” he had said.
However, President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi
Adesina, who responded to Obasanjo’s comments in a telephone interview with Channels Television on Monday, said the assessment was not new.
“Already, the statement issued few months ago by the Minister of
Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, in response to the earlier
criticism made against the government by Obasanjo had adequately
addressed the issues raised,” Adesina said.
He maintained that Buhari’s govenrment would keep making reference to
the failures of the past administration, with a view to guarding
against such mistakes in future.
According to Adesina, the Buhari administration had successfully
tackled mismanagement of the nation’s economy, as Nigeria now had more
savings in its foreign reserve than ever before.