· As Babangida, Obasanjo call for Buhari’s resignation, Nigerians await Danjuma’s letter to Buhari
The life of honest men must be a perpetual infidelity – they cannot be exclusively loyal or devoted to any government or anyone. Even if everything they say is wrong, is prejudiced, spiteful or outright malevolent; even if they exaggerate or grandstand by their summation, it is nevertheless the truth and it will have to be swallowed.
There is no gainsaying the letter has become the preferred medium of political communication. Ask the Nigerian politician; to ex-military Generals and Presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and peer, it has become the most powerful medium of communicating to President Muhammadu Buhari, the opinion of elder statesmen unhappy with his tenure.
Just recently, Obasanjo and IBB ruffled feathers in the presidency by unpalatable advice they gave to President Buhari thus urging him to do the honourable thing and desist from his pursuit of a second term.
The two former presidents stated their dissatisfaction with Buhari’s government, establishing that he has failed at his work.
Ahead of the 2019 general election, Obasanjo set the Nigerian polity agog with his unexpectedly critical open letter to President Buhari. While pointedly telling the President to forget all thought of seeking another term in 2019, he accused the current federal government of failing to live up to the electorate’s expectations.
He berated for failing to deliver on his campaign promises and should therefore “dismount from the horse” to join the league of the country’s former leaders whose “experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the side line for the good of the country.”
“The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed – if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality, are very much with us today,” Obasanjo wrote, stressing that Buhari’s administration promotes nepotism and sectionalism with impunity.
Obasanjo, who served for two terms as president on the platform of opposition People Democratic Party (PDP), expressed his disappointment in Buhari, whom he supported during the 2015 presidential election against former President Goodluck Jonathan, who ran as the candidate of PDP, Obasanjo’s party at the time. He however insisted that his decision to oppose Jonathan back then was the right thing to do in the interest of the country.
Like Obasanjo, Babangida, also a former president and ex-army General, expressed disappointment in Buhari’s administration urging him to quit the saddle for younger, more productive patriots to lead the country and resolve its many problems.
At the backdrop of Obasanjo and Babangida’s controversial letters to President Buhari, the political space has been agog with speculations about the possibility of Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, a former army Chief of Staff, also writing candid letter to Buhari to step down and retire to his home in Daura, Katsina State.
Danjuma has so far being quiet about Buhari’s performance but political pundits aver that he may likely lend his voice to the clamour for President Buhari to quit the saddle and let Nigerians elect a more efficient leader, for the benefit of the country.
As the drama ensues, Nigerians await Danjuma’s letter to Buhari, hoping it will among other things, emphasise to the incumbent President, the wish of the people.
