Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has reacted to comments on pictures of his meeting with president Muhammadu Buhari a few days after his scathing letter was made public.
Nigerians had mixed feelings upon seeing pictures of OBJ exchanging pleasantries with Buhari in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a few days after the former leader published a 13-page letter criticizing the president’s performance and handling of the nation’s affairs.
The former President said he was surprised that many Nigerians were worried that he exchanged pleasantries with President Buhari at the African Unity summit in Addis Ababa, few days after he wrote the open letter to the President.
Obasanjo 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, was said out of bitterness and hatred. It is evident that the President has performed, in some areas, good enough.
“In other areas not good and a proper advice was given 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.
“I went to him just before the beginning of the opening of the AU summit. I had gone round to greet some few other Presidents, should I ignore him? So, I went to my President, greeted him and we joked before General Abdulsalami (Abubakar) said we should have a group photograph.
“I had wanted him (Buhari) to stand in the middle before he said I am the most senior and the photograph went viral on the social media.”
Obasanjo, while justifying the need for the CNM, argued that if all the instruments the country had used in the quest for nation building and governance since independence had failed, it was imperative to try new ways.
He said, “If what we have tried in the past has not taken us to the Promised Land, we have to try something else and something else is this grassroots popular movement built from the bottom-up to lead us, I hope and pray, to the Promised Land.”
