Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that President Muhammadu Buhari never exhibited what he described as “nepotistic tendencies” when he (Buhari) served in his (Obasanjo’s) administration between 1976 and 1979.
It would be recalled that following the assassination Gen. Murtala Muhammed in the February 13, 1976 coup, Obasanjo (Muhammed’s successor) appointed Buhari (then a colonel) as the federal commissioner (now minister) for petroleum and natural resources.
In 1977 when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was created, Buhari was appointed as its Chairman, a position he held until 1978.
From 1978 to 1979 when Obasanjo handed power to a democratically elected president, Buhari served as military secretary at the army headquarters and as a member of the Supreme Military Council.
Speaking yesterday in a virtual interview with academic and historian, Toyin Falola, the former president said he thought he knew Buhari because he served in his administration.
He also said he thought that Buhari would do well in the anti-corruption war based on his (Buhari’s) pedigree as military head of state between 1983 and 1985.
“I thought I knew President Buhari because he worked with me. But I used to ask people that is it that I have not read him well or read him adequately or is it that he has changed from the Buhari that I used to know? I am not subscribing to the people who say we have a new Buhari from Sudan and all that nonsense.
“I know what I believed was his limitations and I have written about it –he wasn’t strong in economics, not all of us are strong in anything but you need to have sufficient knowledge of it for you to direct the affairs. He wasn’t particularly too strong in foreign affairs but I thought he was strong enough in the military.
“From his performance in his first outing as head of state, I thought he would also do well in fighting corruption. I did not know the nepotistic tendencies of President Buhari maybe because he was not exposed to that sort of situation when he worked with me.
“But with what I have seen now, I believe that maybe he will be thinking of a legacy. Maybe he will also learn from what has happened in recent times. If you are the commander-in-chief and banditry is taking place in your backyard, then you have to wake up.”
Obasanjo also described as “worrisome” the fact that banditry had engulfed northwest region of the country where Buhari comes from.
He therefore charged the president to wake up and fight banditry and other sundry crimes especially in the northern part of the country.
He charged Buhari to start thinking of leaving an enduring legacy as president.
He also stated that some governors were in a state of hopelessness because of the president’s way of handling insecurity in the country.
Obasanjo said there was nothing to cheer about the recent appointment of new service chiefs.
He said the success or failure of the new commanders would be known in the next six months.
“Recently, the president changed his service chiefs after they have been there for more than five years without any perceptible improvement and some people started jubilating.
“Somebody spoke to me and said, ‘Oh, you are not enthused’, and I said, ‘I am not’. The person said, ‘Why?’ And I said I don’t know any of those people that have been appointed as service chiefs but you will hear my comments three to six months from now because within that period, we should be able to show what they can do. And if they cannot bring about any perceptible change or improvement then you can write them off as failures,” he added.
