Nigeria’s presidency has launched a scathing response to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent criticism of the current administration, highlighting what it calls significant failures during his own tenure in office.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Monday, challenged Obasanjo’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s government and his description of Nigeria as a failing state.
“Former President Obasanjo’s habit of casting aspersions on every subsequent administration has devolved into a recurring pastime, overshadowing the expectation of an elder statesman to join a constructive dialogue on attaining national progress,” Onanuga stated.
The controversy stems from Obasanjo’s recent presentation at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University, where he criticized both the Tinubu administration and former President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he dubbed “Baba Go Slow.”
In a pointed reference to Obasanjo’s own legacy, Onanuga said: “If Chief Obasanjo had addressed the many problems he critiqued in his poorly written Yale lecture when he ruled Nigeria for eight years, President Buhari and President Tinubu would have had a much lighter burden of fixing the country.”
The presidency’s response highlighted several controversies from Obasanjo’s 1999-2007 tenure, including the $16 billion power sector investment that reportedly left the country “in utter darkness” and the controversial privatization program that allegedly undervalued national assets.
Addressing Obasanjo’s criticism of the electoral commission, Onanuga recalled the 2007 elections under Obasanjo’s watch, stating: “It is hypocrisy writ large when a man who presided over the worst election in Nigeria demands the sack of the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
The statement also referenced the late literary icon Chinua Achebe’s rejection of a national honor from Obasanjo’s government in 2004, quoting Achebe’s words: “Nigeria’s condition today under your watch is…too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 honours list.”
Onanuga advised: “It would be better and more advisable for former President Obasanjo to temper his self-righteousness in his public discussions regarding our nation’s temporary difficulties. Instead, his remaining years would be better spent reflecting on the missed opportunities during his own time in leadership.”
