A group, New Initiative for Credible Leadership (NICREL), has said that, haven monitored the happenings in Nigeria, particularly the political terrain as activities heat up ahead of next year’s election with deep concerns, that it is worried over what it described as expired politicians’ emerging on the Nigerian political scene.
The group said it is worried that many expired politicians are coming up with different forces and coalitions to drag Nigeria back to what it called the Dark Age.
NICREL said the recent statements on the state of the nation by former military rulers, Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, OBJ, and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida,IBB, should not be taken seriously because the ex-Presidents failed to do what they are now preaching when they held sway as presidents.
Speaking at a press Conference in Abuja on Monday, Most Reverend Steven Onwu, the Executive Director of the group, said the advice by the xe-presidents asking Buhari to bury his second term ambition was against the tenets of democracy.
Recall that a statement claimed to have emanated from the former head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida and which was later debunked by the General had allegedly urged President Muhammadu Buhari to bury his second term ambition for the interest of the country.
Also, Dr. Obasanjo had equally, over a week ago, written a letter to President Buhari wherein he scored the current administration low on several areas while pushing for a coalition which he later launched.
But reacting, however, Onwu noted that the manner in which the claimed statements by the ex-presidents were conveyed to Nigerians was not appropriate, if at all that claimed to have emanated from IBB was really from the General.
According to him, “Kindly note that former military head of state and former president, Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, only a few days ago, apparently singing from the same hymnbook, issued a statement with which he called on Nigerians to form or join a Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM).”
The group also accused the former presidents, IBB and OBJ’s administrations of witnessing economic policies that stunted Nigeria’s growth. The group also said the former presidents’ era witnessed what they said is the highest point of corruption in the country and asked the ex-presidents to apologise to Nigerians.
“..Nigerians are not able to forget that his (IBB) economic policies left the country bankrupt and reduced to a nation in need of foreign help despite its abundant natural resources. The fallout of his rule underpins the economic morass that the country is still struggling to exit several decades later.
“Nigeria will not migrate to IBB’s proposed digital era. That is not the kind of progress Nigeria wants to make and wherever the promised land is, IBB is not the kind of person to take Nigeria there.”
“What we have learnt is that these former military leaders and other power brokers are unhappy with President Buhari for breaking rank with the old order by implementing programmes that return power to Nigerians. Their loss of control over the Buhari presidency is therefore hurting badly to a point where they have to hatch a plan to retake the Presidential Villa from Nigerians,” the group said.
