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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo will react to President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to contest for the 2019 Presidential election, a close confidant of the former president has said on Monday.
Perry Opara, who is also the National Chairman of the National Unity Party (NUP) told BusinessDay on Monday that Obasanjo, who is implacably opposed to the government of President Buhari, is not in the country now but will surely issue a statement when he returns to the country soon.
President Buhari on Monday during the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, declared his intention to seek reelection in the 2019 presidential election.
Opara said that Obasanjo is the catalyst for the mass movements that have swept across the federation in the form of Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM) which is in grand coalition with about 35 political parties, civil society organisations, faith- based organisations among others, allegedly aimed at removing the Buhari government and forming a Government of National Unity.
“We are going to commence meeting with Obasanjo to reinforce our strategy for 2019. Obasanjo is not in the country now but as soon as he comes back he will issue a statement that Nigerians will follow and take it from there,” he said.
Obasanjo has inspired the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), which he launched to allegedly unseat President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Obasanjo is also mobilizing Nigerians against the return of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to power. The former president has said that the two main parties have led Nigerians astray and don’t deserve to be given any further chance.
Recall that Obasanjo issued a letter to President Buhari in January in which he severely criticized the president for failing to better the Nigerian economy and failing to provide security to the people following the incessant attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen. He further slammed the president for his alleged high level of nepotism and clannishness and urged him to quit the stage for younger people.
He further tasked the Nigerian people to reject Buhari and warned them not to “reinforce failure”.
Obasanjo has since received the support of former generals who also denounced Buhari over his shortcomings. In February former military president Ibrahim Babangida served Buhari another letter where he raised multiple failures of the Buhari government and urged him to quit the stage.
Then in late March, former Chief of Army Staff, Theophilus Danjuma, during the convocation ceremony of the Taraba State University, accused the security forces of colluding with the herdsmen attackers. This was a direct allegation that the Buhari government allegedly looks the other way while Fulani herdsmen massacre Nigerians.
