Following his scathing letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, former
President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has revealed he wrote Buhari out of
his deep concern for the situation in the country.
Speaking on Thursday at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists, Oke Ilewo area of Abeokuta, shortly after the Coalition for
Nigeria Movement was inaugurated in Ogun State, Obasanjo said he was
surprised that many Nigerians were worried that he had exchangec
pleasantries with President Buhari at the African Unity summit at Addis
Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, few days after he wrote the open letter to
him (Buhari).
He noted that he never condemned the Buhari-led administration in
totality, as he explained he gave him commendation in areas where it had
performed well.
Obasanjo, however, spoke in parable, hinting that big masquerades
have taken the centre stage, and the small masquerades must quit the
stage.
He said, “Last week, I issued a statement which I did not do
lightly or frivolously but out of deep concern for the situation of our
country.
“I wonder why some Nigerians were worried why I had to pay
respect to the Nigerian President at Addis Ababa. That’s my own
upbringing as a well-born and bred Yoruba boy.
“That doesn’t mean that what I have said about the President,
which I did not say out of bitterness and hatred. It is evidence that
the President has performed, in some areas, good enough.
” In other areas not good and a proper advice which he may take and he may not take.
“I didn’t do that out of malice or out of ‘bad belle’; I did it
out of my respect for that office and my interest and I hope in your
interest and the interest of Buhari in Nigeria.”