For Lagos based lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, the letter by former President Oluesegun Obasanjo chastising President Muhammadu Buhari for alleged incompetence was mere grandstanding.
Reason: in the opinion of the human rights activist the Obasanjo administration was guilty of the same failings which have characterised Buhari’s government.
In his reaction to the letter on Friday, Falana dismissed Obasanjo’s complaints and warned him not to insult the intelligence of Nigerians.
As far as he is concerned, Obasanjo and Buhari are birds of the same feather as they are guilty of almost the same offence.
“I think, they are birds of same feathers,” he stated.
Falana who spoke in Benin said most of the alleged ills of President Buhari were also perpetrated by Obasanjo’s government.
He particularly mentioned the culture of impunity as one major problem of the Obasanjo administration.
He therefore said Obasanjo would only be insulting the intelligence of Nigerians to complain of the ills.
His words: “If President Obasanjo who ruled this country for 11 and half years has institutionalised democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights, we will not be in this mess and the control of Nigeria by the Nigerian people, we will be having an Eldorado by now.
“So, please, let Obasanjo and others be honest to admit that they brought us to this shameful episode. So, nobody should grandstand when it comes to the misgovernance of Nigerians.”
Falana said it was unfortunate that there was nothing to show for close to hundred billion dollars from the sale of oil by Nigeria from 1999 to 2007.
He said rather what the nation continued to get was darkness.
“The more you spend on energy, the more darkness you get. So, what is there to celebrate? What we have were mass unemployment and sale of national assets to few boys who were close to the presidency and rigging of elections.
“You have all forgotten that the results from Delta, Ondo and others were announced in Abuja and not in those states in order to rig those elections. What is there to celebrate?
“President Obasanjo is entitled to form his own political party or his own movement but he should please desist from insulting the collective intelligence and the collective memories of Nigerians.”
He stated too that when Sharia started, the federal government did not challenge the constitutionality.
He said under Obasanjo’s government, Nigeria lost over 20,000 people to ethnic and religious violence.
“With great respect to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, apart from the allegations of nepotism and clannishness, which cannot be disputed, every other allegations made there, is nothing to write home about. In other words, all the other allegations took place under Obasanjo and in fact, he institutionalised the culture of impunity under the democratic dispensation in Nigeria.
“Many of us have forgotten the abduction of Governor Chris Ngige, many of us have forgotten the fact that the National Assembly and the House of Representatives displayed bales of naira with which it was alleged that the presidency wanted to bribe the legislators.
“Many of us have forgotten about the third term agenda or the fact that many people who were also closed to the seats of power were treated like sacred cows even in the fight against corruption. But I do not want to join issues with Obasanjo for now on his letter so that one is not seeing as endorsing impunity in our country but other than the allegations of nepotism and clannishness which the presidency is notoriously noted for, I think, they are birds of same feathers,” he said.
